Preparing the ebony fretboard

I dressed my fretboard a bit in preparation for cutting the fret slots.  I sanded the top surface with 400 grit sandpaper and trimmed the piece closer to the final dimensions on the table saw.  When the fretboard is complete and on the neck, it is tapered and asymmetrical, so the slots for the frets are cut while the piece still has parallel edges so the frets will be square.  I need to cut 22 slots, each at  a precise measurement from the nut at the top of the neck.  The measurements are to the thousandth of an inch.  I used my dial calipers (Thanks Wes!) to measure the first 4 frets.

 

My calipers only go up to 6 inches so after that I used a steel ruler marked in 100ths.  Man those lines are small.

 

After measuring with the tiddy little lines on the ruler or using the calipers I made a small mark on the edge with an X-ACTO knife and put the fretboard in a jig I made.  The jig functions just like a miter box, holding the saw perpendicular to the fretboard by using a precut slot in the guides.  Lining up each mark with the slot in the jig I cut each fret slot with a backsaw.  This backsaw has the proper width needed to hold the fret wire.

 

A while later, all the slots are done!

 

The pictures below show the fret wire and its tang that fits in the slots.  The tang has little barbs that hold it in place once it is hammered in.  I tried to cut each slot just deep enough for the depth of the tang.

 

 

I won’t install the frets until the neck is just about done but below is a picture of what they should look like.

 

While measuring for the frets I kept thinking about Pythagoras and Donald Duck-