Fretboard inlay advice needed

I've never yet done a fretboard inlay, and was wondering if anyone had any advice before I give this a go.
I was going to inlay the rabbit before cutting the fret slots, then file the barbs of the tang of the frets that go through the inlay, then hammer them in with care.(I use hhg in the slots)
I tend to get a bit of back bend from the compression of the frets as it is, and am worried that I might be underestimating things, I haven't yet filed off barbs before either so I'm kind of shooting in the dark as to whether this will alleviate the pressure on the inlay which might not be as forgiving as the wood.
Here are some photos of the project, the rabbit is made from fossilized mammoth ivory pieces (the fretboard in the photo is just for illustration it's an old reject)

Thanks
Theo

The biggest worry when pressing frets into a shell inlay is the possibility of cracking the pearl. You should have that problem with fossil ivories though. Nether the less I would take the precaution of beveling the slots with a tri-corner file. BTW, I never file the barbs off when using this method.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot and post the results.