I just finished the trunk pieces for the tree #inlay, which completes it. Here shown before glueing and filling the gaps with wood dust.

This part has been very tedious to make and I consider it the limit of what I'm able to do. Very tiny pieces… Radiusing the fretboard will reveal the result.

Mistakes do happen. To file the branch to fitting length, I had to remove it, file it by holding it down in a different position, and then test fit it again, repeatedly. By doing so I lost track of the proper angle to meet the crown neatly and ended up filing off too much. Now there's a visible gap.

Yesterday I worked on the trunk of the tree #inlay but the mother of pearl pieces I chose were too bright and so today I made another one with darker pieces. Looks much better now for my taste.

Cutting the #inlay pieces of the trunk and branches for the tree inlay out of black mother of pearl.

And here they jump 🐬🐬

The dolphin #inlays are ready to be glued into the #fretboard.

Routing the pockets for the dolphin #inlays into the #fretboard.

The attached handles make removing the inlay pieces much easier while test fitting and helps avoid breaking them.

The second dolphin #inlay is also finished.

The #abalone tree crown #inlay is now glued into the #fretboard.

The rough shape of the #abalone tree crown #inlay is cut.

The first dolphin #inlay is finished.

Cutting of the first dolphin #inlay in progress. Pre-cut with a jigsaw and then shaped with tiny files.

Preparing the next fret marker #inlays. Dolphins on black mother of pearl.

The #abalone pieces are now glued onto rosewood scraps with epoxy resin for additional thickness and strength. After the resin has hardened I can proceed with cutting the contour.

Preparing the next #fretboard #inlay. Cut some pieces from the #abalone shell, which is more colourful but also thinner than the previous one. With this one, no loss of colour should occur after the inlay is set in and the fretboard gets radiused.

Another abalone shell (Haliotis iris) arrived today. Much richer in colour and most importantly, throughout the shell's thickness.

Routing the #fret slots with a 0.5 mm end mill bit. They break very easily and to avoid that, feed needs to be very slow and only about 0.25 mm deep at each pass. The max. speed of my drill press is 2450 rpm, a fraction of what's optimal. Routing one slot like that takes about 45-60 mins.

This is a piece of #abalone shell. Before sanding it flat, its whole surface was greenish. It turns out that only the first few layers have coloured iridescence. If one needs these for #inlays on a radiused #fretboard, one risks sanding away all the colour. Through-thickness colour is what you need.