[Bluej58]

Everyone talks about cutting slots like its some deep canyon when in reality it's a groove about half to 2/3s the thickness of the string, I think the biggest challenge is getting the spacing right and making sure that they are straight.
Once you have the nut shaped to height using the half pencil trick, I start out by scratching lines into the nut with a reversed razor knife and then I check again to make sure the lines are straight and the spacing is right, everyone here knows that you have to adjust for string thickness right?
For this I must admit that I bought a spacing rule that takes a lot of the brain work out, but I'm sure that there is some place on the net if not here that someone has made one that you can copy.
The next thing I do is to cut thin shallow slots for every string, then I go along and open up the 5 upper strings with a B string size file and so on, progressively increasing the slots as needed.
Find a fine hack saw blade a little bigger than your thinnest string and I think you could use the string and Popsicle stick trick with a little course rubbing compound or possibly making nicks in the string to create teeth.
I make the E and B string slots a little deeper and that could be tricky, you have to make sure that the bottoms are round and the slots are not tight on the strings, don't forget to flair out the back of the nut slots a little.
But I know a quality nut can be achieved by using simple tools.
as a matter of fact I might just try it and see.
The biggest challenge imho is in setting up the radius and getting the spacing right.
Another trick is to pitch the saw blade a little when working on the thicker strings, using the side of the blade to widen the slot.
Go slow and look at what your doing through a magnifying glass and it will work. JD
P.S. I don't buy bone nut blanks, I cut them out of an old beef minestrone soup bone on my scroll saw