Sand Inlays

Is there any major disadvantages to sand/metal powder inlays?

Anyone who wants to dress a fingerboard with such an inlay in the future will curse you. MOP has an advantage we take for granted, which is that it grabs light well in marginal light environments such as on a stage.

All kinds of materials make interesting inlays, but one reason not to use a material is simply because it is easier. You have to design for the materials you intend to use. For example, you can rout a cavity for your liquid inlays (powders in epoxy, for instance), but you'll have to spend a fair amount of time refining it with small chisels or razor knives to create fine points in your design. Such details are easier to cut and file into solid materials (ie:MOP) and then glue into an imperfect but easy to rout cavity, especially in a wood such as ebony which can hide hide many errors. The imperfections in your work will go away with experience. Bruce is right, few things glitter like shell, but the inlay palette is widening all the time. Few inlay artists seem to worry about player confusion on the fretboard, or the visual aspects from a distance. Once practical matters lean toward art almost anything goes, for better or worse. Try your inlay techniques on boxes or cutting boards first. If they please you go ahead and put them on an instrument. Show us your work. We love to watch talent grow.

I don't know how Kanile'a does it but I can see finishing nightmares. Beach sand and lacquer? Haha. I can't imagine how that's done unless it's buried under a matrix of epoxy or something else.

What I was thinking I have seen rings filled with (ground) turquoise and coral sand/really small pebbles suspended in a resin.

I did see that uke listed with the sand inlay and thought how cool.

I believe Kanilea uses epoxy to inlay sand, but pretty sure their finishes are a UV cured polyester of some sort.

Hmm...everyone tells me to pound sand. Maybe that's what they mean

I didn't want this thread to be taken too lightly, so I thought I'd throw in some pix that might be useful. In the past I used a lot of turquoise. As rocks go its fairly soft, but its still a bear to sand flush with the wood. Sand is mostly quartz, and much harder. I don't anticipate trying to use it. These days I use Inlace, and the colors and special effects are pretty much endless. There's a nice book about using it, though it mostly has to do with decorating gourds.

The first dulcimer has MOP flower petals, piano key ivory, and crushed turquoise for foliage. The second dulcimer is my wife's. All the hearts are MOP. The brown part of the fingerboard is walnut dust mixed with epoxy. The roses are crushed marble and course rosewood dust mixed with epoxy, and the stems are green tempera powder mixed with epoxy. The mandolin has a white pine top with a crushed turquoise rosette and purfling. They were all done in the early '80s, and you might be able to see that the epoxy on my wife's dulcimer got a bit weird with time.

The shedua guitar has a rosette of wood dots in the middle surrounded by rings of epoxy mixed with black tempera powder. Its from the early '90s.

The last rosette is from a contemporary OM guitar, and is Inlace.

More to come.

Post #2---All three pix are of the same baritone uke. The rosette is of wooden dots in the cedar top, and the purfling is a different Inlace.

The OM and the baritone just have a quick coat of shellac thrown on them to make them a little prettier.

I'm sure this kind of work isn't for everyone, but its a fairly easy way (with Inlace, at least) to put color on an instrument and get effects that can't be had any other way. Inlace could also be engraved, but I sure wouldn't try that with a turquoise matrix.

Those look great. I've been experimenting with an epoxy resin called Pour-On tinted with pearlescent powders. Results have been mixed so far, failures being mostly my artistic ineptitude.

Another thread brought me to instructables and this link made me think of this thread. http://www.instructables.com/id/Liquid-inlaid-laser-cut-guitar-headstock-made-a/