Level and crown on stainless steel frets...who has done so?

[pchilson]

My understanding is the ss frets are harder than conventional fret wire material...I have recently acquired a guitar with ss frets and got to wondering how much harder this job becomes considering the hardness of the ss material.
Anyone here has done a level and crown on ss frets and wants to describe what you see? Is it more difficult?

 

[3bolt79]

My understanding is the ss frets are harder than conventional fret wire material...I have recently acquired a guitar with ss frets and got to wondering how much harder this job becomes considering the hardness of the ss material.
Anyone here has done a level and crown on ss frets and wants to describe what you see? Is it more difficult?

Yes, it is more difficult. There are different grades and hardnesses of stainless steel used for fret wire. I had one fret to dress on a friend's guitar that had stainless, and it ruined the bit on my fret file.

You may want to use a diamond file, but it still may end up trashed by the end of the job.

Levilling isn't a problem if you use a radius block and sand paper. It just takes longer. The radius block will make it so you don't have to remove much metal. You will lose a lot less than with a flat beam. If you have a compound radius, you will need to use a flat beam and will wind up having to use the crowning file more at the end

 

[pchilson]

Aye...I'm in no need of a level on this guitar but got to thinking with the ss frets it may take that type of job out of my hands...thanks for your reply, kind of what I suspected...