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No, I won't tell you how I tried to make three fretboard and failed, due to stress, a faulty mitre box and bad luck. But I will show you a bit about how the forth fretboard came alive. Bye the way - the first three attempts were made by laburnum which I planned to make black as ebony by a chemical process including vinegar and steel wool - but this forth one is made of real ebony. It's the first time ever that I use real ebony. Previously I've been using a tropical wood that I don't even know the name of - but it's similar to teak.

So here's a photo serie of the process. One of the most common questions I get about making my own instruments is about how I place the frets. People often believe there is some heavy maths behind the calculation of fret positions. And may be there is - but all I do is printing the positions from an on-line fret calculator that Stew- Mac provides:

I mark the positions whith the help of a square edge and an exacto knife (or whatever it's called). This step was awfully dificult as my eye-sight have detoriated with age. But on this forth attempt I got it right:

Next step involved a special fret saw, that makes cuts thin enough for the fret wire (all common saws make wider cuts). I got a jig bolted on the saw that makes the cuts just deep enough for the fret wire:

I forgot to take any photos while attaching the frets, but it just involves a lot of banging whith a hammer on the pieces of fret wire. Meanwhile I also drilled holes for the fret markers. For the first time I didn't make them myself, but glued in premade, round markers:

When the frets were attached there was a lot of filing. First I file down the edges whith a file I bought for sharpening a chain saw. Then I used the same file plus sand paper to make all the frets levelled and then used a special crowning file for reshaping the profile of the frets:

I left two of the fret slots empty and in these I drilled two tiny holes (each). Then I inserted four tiny nails, laid the fret board in its exact position on the neck and gently hammered the nails into the neck. This made it possible to position the fretboard exactly when it was time to glue it to the neck. So the last two frets were attached after glueing the fretboard. But before that I used a last specialized tool - a fret end file:

And here I glue the fretboard:

And this is the result:

And finally it starts to look as an instrument!