I never believed myself that MOP can be bent although I remember to have read in one of 19th century craftsman's hand books that MOP can be soaked in vinegar and then bent ... but I never tried this though. Could that be a joke!?
Perhaps as you've suggested the best way would be to cut the piece from thick enough chunk of MOP. I remember seeing a really unique exhibition of carvings in MOP and some of the subjects were an inch or more deep! I even asked the craftsman where he gets the MOP shells from but I don't remember now (it was some 15 years ago). Alexander ----- Original Message ----- From: "van Geest Gitaar & Luitbouw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 7:31 AM Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: bending mother of pearl etc > > Dear Christopher, > > MOP cant be bend. You can only do that with bone (and maybe ivory). If you > bend MOP it will break. So the trick is to get a thick enough piece of MOP > and inlay it in the open spot. Glue it and file it down to the fingerboard > afterwards. > > Yours, > > Ernstjan To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
