TRADITIONAL SOLID BLANKS

Most shells are becoming increasingly hard to procure in the best sizes and grades, due to a number of problems in the various fisheries, which is why Paua and Green abalone may have limited availability in the traditional “blank” form. ABALAM® LAMINATED SHEETS allow us to get about five or six times the yield from raw shell, are our best way to preserve dwindling resources, and have many other advantages as outlined in the notes for those materials.

All our traditional solid blanks are extremely high quality: random shapes and sizes, of uniform thickness with no taper, perfectly flat, and with minimal to no bark on the backside. Each blank is hand trimmed of bad edges and corners, and free of flaws such as worm holes, cracks, dead areas, discoloration, hollow spots, and internal inclusions. The weight you're paying for is fully usable – dump out a bagful and they'll look perfect no matter how they land!

It takes about 1-2 ounces of blanks to inlay a typical guitar or banjo neck. .060" (1.53mm) is the most popular thickness, especially if working on a curved surface. .050" (1.27mm) will work for most inlays, and is easier and faster to cut. If working on a flat surface, .040" (1.02mm) cuts easiest and requires shallower routing for the cavity, but can also be more fragile when hand cutting finely detailed shapes. And remember that there are more pieces in an ounce of thinner blanks.

A few very large or especially high-grade (jewelry quality) pieces are sometimes available in all shell types: please call, or send full-size drawings of your pattern so we can help you select any unique materials for that “special” job. We can also supply exact-size and thickness pieces (especially in White MOP) – send us your specs for a quote, and we may even have blanks in stock which are close to what you need.