@nsj I actually can sharpen the blades alright, but my planing technique is so bad I can’t make the wood flat… 🤨 
Practice makes perfect, I suppose.

@swepri I bought a fairly cheap set of diamond stones off amazon, now I can plane highly figured wood and all sorts with no tear out. I seem to be able to get them really sharp which makes a big…   Read more»

@tv101 had an idea last night, you could do a shallow carve so there’s like 1mm of top around the egde then add binding, that would hide the fact the top was thin!

I have a drum sander to tackle the thickness (and flatness) of fretboards. It takes a few passes but there is no risk for tearout. Then I cut the fret slots. I make the radius using a router bit, usually…   Read more»