Well, I worked on the frets today, finished shaping them in a process called "re-crowning". Here's a microscope photo of what a fret looks like after being leveled... it's flat on top.

And, here's what it looks like after being filed to the proper shape.

The fret is filed on with a specially modified 3 corner file. What's special is the corner edge. It's taken to a belt sander and all the 'bite' is removed so it won't damage the tape or the wood as it's used to file the sharp edge of the fret into a more uniform round edge.

The frets are not finished yet, they still need to be polished and the final smoothing done. This takes an "eraser" that's special for the job, it's a 1000 grit sanding block, so it really puts a smooth finish on them. In the light reflection you can see every little scratch and touch it up easily. It takes about 5-10 minutes to polish 1 fret out.

After the polishing is done, a last minute look under the scope is in order and any left over missed areas are re-taped and polished some more.

In the end, the frets measured between .88mm and 1.03mm in height. The difference in those two dimensions sounds like a lot but it's only +/- .003" tolerance.

Plenty precise for me. We shall see how they feel and sound under a string shortly... almost time to glue it to my 5 string electric.

Here's the final inspected finished product...ready to install.

Officially No.#1 of the Maple 5 String fret board run... LoL

It's no big deal really, I'm just disappointed because I wanted to fret that ebony board, as it was already the proper size and shape for a 5 string EV.

Now I have to wait for the new ones to arrive.

I might really like the ebony board with white pearl dots and frets so I might change it again! Ha.

I will be using hide glue so I can remove it a lot easier.

Well, the other nite I was involved in quite a conversation with Ol Ogre and he asked if I was going to put a binding on the fretboard... Hell no... the thing is already finished, frets are polished and rolled at the ends, etc....

Then afterwards, I got to thinking, the peg end is looking like a nice Fender guitar with those chrome tuning geared pegs and why the hell not put a binding around the edge of the fingerboard.so...

Here we go... sand the sides equally to reduce the overall width of the fingerboard the total of .160" (2 sides @.080" thick for the binding strip) or less and then add small dots to the sides like a guitar fretboard has... and of course give it a "Fender-style fretboard Cut" between the frets and finish it off to conform to the neck of the violin. So I ordered some binding that was pretty nice from Stew-Mac, got it today and couldn't leave it alone... Here's some pics of the process. First, match a pair so we can drill.

Matching the two seperate strips side by side like this allows me to flip it around and keep the same distance from the edge on all the holes for the tiny 1.5mm dia pearl dots.

Once the dots are installed, and THEY ARE TINY! , Then we can un-tape them and glue both to the fingerboard.

While the fretboard glue dries and cures, I can work a little on the nut. The height will be adjusted accordingly and the grooves added depending on the dia of string in each position to maintain the 1mm clearance. The dark wood will be sanded down to match the fingerboard surface and won't stick up.

UPDATE: Sept 29, 2015

     I've been dealing with a logo issue...and every time it ends up screwed up I have to sand off the clear I just put on and start all over again... what a job!

Anyway... I have designed a logo (per the suggestion of my 'marketing/advertising/copyright Manager'... Toni (CPO)) and decided on a limited edition run of 10 of these fingerboards. So this is the first one, the prototype and testing item to see how this all plays out. So far so good.

Here's a few pics of the finishing process and the logo fiasco which resulted in a decent "old time look" to it on the violin.

First pic is of the logo just installed... still wet.

The second shows the closeup of the logo.

And here's an overall shot which doesn't look too bad.

I will work on a new nut tomorrow and try to start the final coat of clear and then the following day, assembly starts! Whoo Hoo...

Old Ogre suggested I add the binding to it and I chose the Cocobolo dark wood (very hard) laminated with maple to give it a final finished look. I tried to bend a piece to cap the end of the fingerboard but no matter what I did, hot water, steam, soaking over night, nothing would soften it enough to bend that 42mm radius, but I do have some very pretty stained glasses now from the wood. LoL