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Is there any problem trimming the tang from a medium fret with the Stewmac fret tang nippers for large frets? Thanks!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

If the sizes don't match, the tang may not be completely removed. There may be a line on the extension that has to be filed. Or, it may want to trim too much and shave away a bit of the bottom of the fret.

Most of the differences between large and small fret wire is in the width of the fret and not the height of the tang. I have trimmed mandolin fret wire with the same nippers as I use for guitar frets. I just had to be a bit more careful putting the fret wire into the nippers.

If you already have the nippers and the fret wire, just try it and see. You may find that you can adjust the way you insert the fret in to get the results you need.

I have to file the remainder off every fret. Not sure if there is something better out there but they work.

Hey Alex, I just got the LMI fret tang filer. Used it once, and it seems to work great. You can give it a try on the 17th.

Steve

Me too. It seemed pointless.

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Are these things even necessary? Flush ground nippers work for me. Just the slightest swipe from a medium cut file will get rid of any residuals, and I could probably skip this step most of the time. I've never seen the need to upgrade, but then again I'm not hardly doing fretjobs everyday.

Your nippers must be flusher than mine (StewMac), which have a tiny bevel on the outer edge, and need a lot of file cleanup when nipping tangs. I made my own tang nipper from a cheap sheet metal nibbling tool, which gets closer, but still needs a little file cleanup. I use a needle file, which takes a while and is hard on the fingers. How do you get a medium file to cut the burr, rather than just snagging on it and bending the fret or painfully yanking it away?

My tang nipper only works on medium wire. Uke/mando wire gets bent in the process of nipping. I've been meaning to make another with a shallower slot for smaller wire. I'm not sure if the StewMac nippers are significantly different and can work with multiple wire sizes or not.

They are pretty flush. I took some channelocks and ground them with my mighty Baldor. I think I practiced first with some cheap 99¢ store type nippers. If there's a tiny bevel on the outer edge, they're not really flush ground. The file doesn't seem to catch, perhaps not enough there. Sometimes it's easier to put the file in a vise and move the frets.

My nippers have a tiny bevel too and as such are not suitable for removing all but the remnant of the fret tang.

The Stew-Mac fret tang nipper can be sharpened and when it is it cuts better, easier, and more completely but you still will have a bit of an artifact of the tang that is very quickly filed away.

To sharper the tang nippers level and polish the two business end surfaces as you would when sharpening a chisel. It can make a noticeable difference in the performance of the tool.

Regarding larger wire I use mine with stainless with no problem and jumbo wire is also no problem.

I'm really curious about the problem with having to file a tang remnant off the ends of nipped frets which appears to be common. I've used two StewMac medium nippers to nip the ends of a few hundred frets and not once had to file off a tang remnant. I'm wondering if it has to do with the version of the nipper being used, the specific fret wire being used, or some combination. Both nippers I've used are the old version (on the left below) and I'm using LMI FW74 fret wire which has a crown height of 0.043 and a crown width of 0.079 which I think makes it medium wire. The old and the current StewMac nippers differ in the shape of the channel that holds the fret and the cutting block itself may be shaped differently.

If your nipper is leaving a tang remnant, which version of the nipper are you using and what type of wire? Maybe there is a pattern?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I've been debating on buying the Stw-Mac version for a while, but then saw the version from Jescar.
I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy Jescars version next time I'm ordering fretwire.
If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Brent

I had a chance to try out the Jescar version at a recent luthier meeting and they are now on my tool list.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Bought one of e- vil bay for abt 1/2 the stu mac price , guess I will sharpen as per advice here. Thanks Gud idea!