Telecaster Two build - 12th fret inlay

I've had a couple of sessions since I last posted, but they were both spent on the inlay at the 12th fret. I've never done inlay this intricate before and there was a reasonable chance I'd mess it up and ruin the fretboard. Rather than do this publicly, I thought it prudent to wait...

We wanted an animal, and given that I've got a couple living on top of the workshop, a fox seemed a good call. So, I printed off the picture I wanted to inlay:



And superglued it to the MOP sheet:



Then I routed it out with my dremel. This is not the right tool for this, but I didn't have a jewellers saw at the time:



Rough cut, and after a little filing... It doesn't look terrible...:



By now I'd realised that this was a much more fiddly job than I initially thought it would be. I bought the proper tool: a jewellers saw to cut out the inside hole in his legs:



And did some more filing. Held against the fretboard, he looks ok...



Then I attached him to the fretboard with tape / glue and traced around him with a scalpel. this is a bit stressful as a slip with the knife could gouge the fretboard:



Leaving this:



Which I routed:



To this:



By this point, it looked a bit rough, but the inlay fitted. It wasn't a tight fit, but it was close enough. I glued the MOP in with superglue and dust filled the edges with some ebony dust I'd saved from the fretboard radiusing. It looked a right mess:



But by the time the fretboard was finish sanded to 600 grit, it looked pretty good. I'm very happy with it, it does look like a fox. The worst you could say is that it's a dog, but even that's close enough!



The fretboard is now finished:



Now that I have the final thickness of the fretboard, I can mill the neck down so that the overall neck + fretboard thickness is 1".

This guitar is now very close to complete - the only major job remaining is the neck profiling. I should hopefully be able to complete the carpentry on this one within two to three weeks.