Abalone purfling

[Stephen Cowden]

I used the cutting described by Chris Paulick in his you tube video and it worked quite well for my rosette.
Now I am getting to the purfling and he has another video about that. He just uses straight pieces for the whole job. Other videos I have seen use straight pieces as well. Does this really work with no gaps in the joint where the pieces break?
I was thinking of cutting the various curves using the above mentioned jig. Does anyone do this also?
Also how do the straight pieces work on the tight radius of a cutaway?

[Barry Daniels]

I know it sounds odd, but you just break straight strips. The break does not really show unless you look very closely. At a cutaway and waist, you just break the shell into shorter pieces. The installation is much easier if you glue in a teflon strip during binding installation, and then pull it out and place the shell.

[Clay Schaeffer]

The thinner the lines the less noticeable the joints are. Abalone being a fairly dark material shows breaks less than lighter pearl materials. A wide white pearl purfling might benefit from more careful fitting but for narrow abalone purfles breaking it to fit is quicker and usually not a problem.

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

I have done it many times with straight pieces, and yes, it does work very well. The joints are really not noticeable once you flood it with super glue. However, once I tried Purflex, I use that now. It is basically, pre broken pieces of shell in a black fiber channel. It bends very easily, and can be tied in a not. It is more expensive than raw shell, but it saves a ton of time.

[Massimiliano Monterosso]

If it is shell then it's not Purflex but Zipflex... same basic idea, very different execution. Also Zipflex is way easier to install, you don't have to mess around with black epoxy filling and such...

Ciao, Max

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

You are absolutely right. I just bought some Purflex, so i had that on my brain. Same concept, both super easy to install.