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Here is the latest Luthier Tips du Jour video. In this video I show how to make a new nut on a 1937 Martin guitar.
This video as well as all my other videos are available via my website, https://lutherieacademy.com/videos , or on YouTube.
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Hey Robbie I hope you are doing great!

I watched the beginning of the video and wanted to suggest that there is another approach especially for this guitar. You mention the choices of shimming or CA and dust or making a new nut.

There is one other choice that is especially attractive where the "conservation ethic" comes into play when dealing with a valuable, vintage instrument with the original nut.

We use light cured dental fillings which was I believe pioneered by Frank Ford. Instead of removing a vintage nut we will fill the slots and recut and the dental fillings are as hard or harder than original bone. We can even match the colors just like a dentist can.

Advantages:

1) Functionally the best choice when preserving the originality and the original nut. CA and dust does not last well especially on the wound strings that the windings act like a file and just grind the filling down and out pretty quickly. I have to take files to slots previously filled with CA and dust frequently and it flies right out usually in chunks and has poor adhesion. Light cured dental fillings are harder than the original nut itself and we have never seen one wear down yet. We've been doing this for 15+ years on hundreds of instruments.

Adhesion wise the light cured fillings are acid etched into the surrounding bone material and that fuses the two together if done properly. I also file in a bit of a dovetail shape when I prepare the nut slot for the filling for mechanical adhesion of the fill.

2). For instruments with finish on the side of the nut and/or the nut was finished on the instrument it makes sense to preserve the original nut. So we will fill with light cured fillings on any nut where it's finish on the sides onto the instrument. It makes an invisible repair that is likely longer lasting than the original nut.

3). Much easier and faster than making a new nut and less invasive to the instrument eliminating risk of chipping finish around the nut in the removal process. I can raise all six slots on a vintage nut and recut to perfect height in 15 minutes. Making a new finely crafted, eloquent nut with a nod to the shape of the original may be an hour or more for me....

Anyway you should do a video on light cured dental fillings and if you have not used the technique before knowing you as I do, teach I am sure you will like the method too.

Making a new nut is a good option for just any ole guitar but not this one, this is a piece of lutherie history and my preference would be to be in full on restoration mode here.

Thanks AND thanks for teaching me to French polish too years ago I still use some of the things I learned from you in my work at Ann Arbor Guitars.

Thanks Hesh for your detailed response. I did offer this option to the client and he decided a new nut was the way to go for him. I believe I already have a video in the hopper using the technique you described. Happy Building.