Peghead Inlay - Process in photos.

A new tenor is underway in the workshop, and this one is getting some daisy inlays with scrimshaw shading to both the peg head and the sound board. Here are some photo's and descriptions in case you were curious about how I do this.

Peg head veneer is machined to the desired finished thickness and has a 14degree bevel cut on the nut edge for later fitting to the neck. Attached to the jig with double sidded tape. The areas that will be inlaid are cut in stages. First up is the stem.



Piece is tacked in place with a drop of CA glue, and then the area for the flower petals is cleaed.



I'm using faux ivory as the inlay material. Cuts very well on the laser. Here I'm test fitting it prior to glueing in place.



A batch of epoxy is made up with a couple drops of black analine dye. I then put this into a vacuum chamber to insure all the air is sucked out.



Overnight cure and then the rebates for the purfling lines are machined, peg head cut to shape and purflings installed. Everything is leveled and sanded to P320 and ready for the scrimshaw.

And a few hours into the shading has me here and needing to rest my eyes and hand.

Gee....it will be a shame to drill holes through that for the tuners

This shows a real love for what you are doing. Looks great. I would not have the patience or skill. I have thought of building a uke from a kit. To go into building for real would take a lot of self evaluation, the commitment in $$ for the equipment is real and the wood is not cheap. And stick to it a ness is not just for the glue. Satisfaction must be through the roof.

It's so easy to look at this type of work and ask yourself does it need more, or is it time to stop. Right now I'm thinking stop.....but that might change sometime before the finish starts to get applied.

It is always fun to see posts of building in progress as it goes along in photos. Thanks Allan... I say stop! It is good enough.

I think it is beautiful and subtle as is. Like Ksquine said, it is a shame to have to drill that for tuners.

Nice scrimshaw tools, with awesome results!