Inlay tool

Hi, i'm thinking about doing a custom inlay on my next guitar neck. thought i'd ask a few quick questions if the pros don't mind helpin out :)

firstly, i'm making the neck out of cocowood, it's used in Asia for various instruments and should be good enough for me, and it has an absolutely amazing grain to it, it's covered in red flecks up and down. I might post a pic if i find my camera. has anyone ever tried using this?

secondly, i thought i'd be a bit ambitious and i'm making a fretless guitar. i've played one before and it was difficult but really quite cool.

the main question though, is that i'm going to do a custom inlay on the fretboard because without frets breaking it up i hav sumthing special in mind ;) i wanted to know what kind of tools i'll need? i don't want to have to invest in a dremel if i can avoid it.

any tips and tricks?

I do custom inlay on most all of my guitar builds. Sometimes I use the dremel with the dental bits but most of the time I do it the old fashion way, I use an exacto knife with a lot of sharp blades and the 4 carving tools in this link:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Chisels/Micro_Chisels.html

And then you will need a cutting jig to cut the pearl and a pearl cutting saw:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Inlay,_pearl/Tools_and_supplies_for:_Inlay,_pearl_cutting/Pearl_Cutting_Jig.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Inlay,_pearl/Tools_and_supplies_for:_Inlay,_pearl_cutting/Pearl_Cutting_Saw.html

I use the exacto instead of a scribe to transfer my drawing onto the wood. And then I use epoxy to glue them in. Since I use mostly ebony and rosewood for my fingerboards I use these filler colors mixed in the epoxy to install the inlay.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Inlay,_pearl/Tools_and_supplies_for:_Inlay,_pearl_cutting/Inlay_Filler_Colors.html

As for tips and tricks, just make sure you keep your chissels and exacto blades nice and sharp during the whole process. That has big the biggest key to mine turning out good each time. Click on this link and read these tips and tricks before you start, they will help you out:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial4.htm

Don

brilliant mate, thanks a lot. i'm going to be making the inlay out of brass cos there's plenty of it lying around where i work and i can scavenge a bit of it lol. absolutely over the moon to hear i can manage this with a knife, my whole philosophy of guitar building is to do it as cheap as possible haha