Abalone saddle/nut?

I was making dots for my fretboard out of some whole abalone shells and I had the thought that they might make cool saddles and nuts. Is there any reason why this would be a mistake? Has anyone tried this before? Thanks,
Alan

Wow. They look stunning. Think you should try them, see how they sound.

Wow... that's an amazing idea! I'd have never thought of it...

I say go for it! Give it a shot.

Oh, and DO please let us know how it works out!

Banjos and mandolins have pearl nuts sometimes. I've never heard of saddles though. Seems like it should work with the lower tension and nylon strings of ukuleles though
I'm looking forward to a sound clip of it...

Yep, you might find that it is a bit too bright, but since you've got it you may as well try it. Just make sure your nut slots and saddle edge aren't sharp or you'll be popping strings.
I'm more interested in how you made them and the dots out of whole shell. I didn't think any one else did this.

I cut out pieces of shell with my dremel and then rough shaped them on my bench grinder. For the dots, I superglued them to a piece of wood chucked up in my lathe and then turned them to 3/8" round. Yes, one at a time. No, I'm not that cheap. I wanted them NOW and I happened to have some shells laying around. Also, I don't know if you can buy 3/8" dots. I kinda like that big marker look. For the nut and saddle and other potential inlay pieces, I lapped them on my 3" x 8" diamond lapping plate. I already owned the diamond plate, in case anyone is wondering why I'd buy a $60 diamond plate in order to save 87¢ each on five abalone dots. (Dang, I had to google to figure out how to make that "¢" sign.) All the time I was doing this I was thinking "I'm pretty sure Chuck Moore uses whole shell for alot of his stuff. I wonder how he does it...?"

If anyone wants to try it it's not that hard. Here's some observations. Wear a really good mask. Work outside if you can. Dropping a shell in Muriatic acid for 30 seconds really makes it gleam. Leaving it in the acid for 30 minutes doesn't make it any prettier, but eats away alot of the shell, both inside and out. I read somewhere that you could rub vaseline on the inside to protect it while the acid eats away the ugly outside of the shell.

If anyone else has any tips on working with shell I'd love to hear them.

Pics of a shell and some inlay pieces I got out of it also, and the big dots on my nearly finished 1st ukulele!

Very cool. I have a jar full of cow bone I processed from soup bones from the butcher... why? I dunno, just the experience I guess. Lovin that nut and bridge. Nice uke too.

That's very admirable to be working with whole shell. That's high on the cool meter.
When I work with whole shell I'll either smack it with a hammer or take it to the bandsaw depending upon how thick it is. I'm going for sizes about the size of a credit card. I'll then hot glue each piece (curved side up) onto a piece of plywood and run it through my drum sander with 36 grit paper. It's a slow, dusty process. Pearl dust is a killer. Literally. My sander is hooked up the the dust collector of course but I also wheel it out to the shop deck and work outdoors with it. You have to frequently check your progress so as not to go through the "mother". You also have to do a lot of guessing as to where the good pearl is; the best is only in a thin (and curved) layer. Once I get the top side as flat as I like it to be I'll flip it over and reglue the pieces to the plywood and sand that side until I'm satisfied. Since the shell gets a little warm, the hot glue makes it easy to get on and off the plywood. I'll finish it off with either 80 or 120 grit on the drum,
down to 1/16".
Dots can be easily made with brass hobby tubing chucked into your drill press. Run a file along the cutting edge of the tubing to produce a sharp edge. Cut them just as you would cutting wooden plugs. I spritz with a water spray bottle to keep things cutting nicely. I've used a diamond tube cutters (available at lapidary supply stores) for the same purpose. They are short though and hard to use. I also treat bone and ivory in the same manner.
I admit that I buy most of my shell stock already pre slabbed but if you need a larger piece than what is commonly available or have some really special shells on hand, it's a valuable skill to know. I have a small stockpile of Tahitian black pearl shell that I collected in the Tuamotus about 25 years ago. You just can't find shell like that anymore.

That saddle and nut are freakin' gorgeous....

Try those bad boys on your 6 string build! Be the first on your block to have some....

That is a pretty cool thing to know how to do! If I found a shell like yours, I’d be cutting it up too! I'm thinking the shells I dig out of Boston Harbor won't be much help on ukuleles...
The fortunate thing for me is I work close enough to Masecraft in Meriden Ct so I can go there and pick through their pearl. Oddly, I was there today at lunch.

Flyfish57 said:

I was there today at lunch.

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Shoots, you could've picked up my order. I keep buying weird stuff from them I never seem to use. Hard to tell what your getting by the pics on the Internet. The cool thing about Masecraft is that you buy 100 bucks worth of stuff and they give you 100 bucks worth of free samples. The samples have always seem weirder than the stuff i've ordered though.

I've had this for years but never used it for anything other than a Soap dish... it's 6" long...what do you think should I chop it up?

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:

Shoots, you could've picked up my order. I keep buying weird stuff from them I never seem to use. Hard to tell what your getting by the pics on the Internet. The cool thing about Masecraft is that you buy 100 bucks worth of stuff and they give you 100 bucks worth of free samples. The samples have always seem weirder than the stuff i've ordered though.

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What do you want me to do with all the weird stuff you order?! haha!! Yeh, some of the stuff that looks cool in their catalog is plastic looking and somewhat cheesy in person. If there's something you're interested in, I can snap a real life photo of it for you next time I'm there.