That is the question and all questions deserve some kind of answer.
There are two kinds of luthiers, it would seem, those that glue their frets into the fretboard and those that don’t. I asked my very experienced local luthier and he said that if you are gluing frets into the fretboard then something is wrong with either the fret wire or the fret slot. I am NOT going to get into a discussion or argument about this but my local luthier has handed out advice to me before and I am learning to trust what this guy says.
So after making the new fret board for the classical guitar, I was just waiting for the fret wire to turn up today. It turned up okay but I had ordered the wrong fret wire, “oh well anyone can make a mistake”, said the Darlek climbing off the dustbin. I managed to buy some fret wire from my local luthier and I have spent all evening fitting the frets. It would seem that getting the frets inserted correctly is all about technique and of course correct fret slot size 0.63mm. I have found that hammering the frets into the fret board with the handle end of my 1/2″ Stanley chisel works really well for me, the handle is a very solid plastic and I get much more accuracy and control using the chisel handle than I was getting from using a hammer and the plastic handle doesn’t mark the fret at all. I have made a very good job of this fretboard so I am well pleased.
This fretboard is the best one I have made so far. I think I have finally fathomed out how to make consistently good fret boards. Drinking home made beer definitely improves the work, at least that is my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
So tomorrow I can get this classical guitar set up and it should play a lot better than it was.