On Thu, Feb 8, 2007, Art Robb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Chris, > > I've used brass sheet for re-fretting these, assuming that's what the > original frets are made from.
Brass or silver seem most likely, possibly german-silver (nickel silver). If the surviving frets have a rounded top edge they are probably sheet folded in half length-wise and hammered to the thickness of the saw-cut groove. It used to be possible to purchase brass sheet in a variety of thicknesses and widths from hobby shops marketing to aircraft, racing car and railroad modelers, but the variety of thicknesses and widths has decreased over the past several decades. Sheet is of course available comercialy to manufacturors, but minimum orders discourage the likes of us keeping a full stock, and making thin strip is a pain. One can begin with wire and roll it to thickness/width, suitable rolling aparatus is avaialable from jewelery supply outlets. Small amounts of stock (individual frets) can be hammered from wire with patience and practice (work on copper first, work on developing a consistant elbow position). > gentle hammering will bend the metal to a curve. Stroking with a burnishing tool gives better control of the curve(s). > used model traintrack as a very close approximation of the historic >> fretting. The section of actual railroad rails varies from country to country and historically - what is used for US models would require modification for use as fretwire, better to work with sheet or wire IMHO. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
