Tried my hand at inlay work tonight. I figured it would be best to practice on another piece of wood before cutting into the nice ebony fingerboard I have. The headstock overlay I have is over-sized, so I used a little corner of it to try inlaying a snowflake. The first attempt one was pretty rough. My second attempt looked a little better so then I decide to move on to the fingerboard.
First I used penil to trace the outline of the inlay on the board.
I used an Exacto knife to cut into the board along the pencil tracing.
I used a small routing bit in my Dremel to cut out a pocket for the inlay.
Using the Exacto knife and a chisel, I cleaned out the corners of the inlay pocket. It took a little while to get the inlay to fit nice and snug in the pocket.
I used a little dab of CA glue in the pocket to hold the inlay in place. The inlay sits slightly proud of the fingerboard, so I will have to sand it flush to the board, and then fill in the gaps with a little sawdust and more CA glue.
Not completely perfect, but I'm proud of my very first inlay. Over the next few days I will work on the rest of the inlays!