Okay, I'm back to this. I'm in the process of making a jig to use to radius the fretboard with that radiusing bit discussed above. I'll post pictures and report back on how that goes in a separate thread.
But back to inlays, I do want to make one or two "test" fretboards both to test the radiusing process and to practice doing the inlays. I had pretty much decided to go with
gold MOP "sharkfin" inlays from DePaule supply. I wanted to get some gold MOP blanks to use for doing some test inlays before working on the actual FB for this build (I'm using jatoba) and emailed them to ask how much blank stock I'd need (it's sold by the ounce).
They were helpful, but cautioned that anything less than a 16" radius risks sanding the edges of wide inlays like these thin enough that they become semi-transparent, affecting the color. My plan is for a 12" radius, traditional for a lester. They did mention that some luthiers will paint the back of the inlays white to deal with this.
Just wanted to toss this out there for any comments by those experienced with MOP inlays.
Note that I'm not married to the idea of MOP. I have some ebony I could re-saw into inlay stock, but while this would make any gap-filling easier, I'm not sure that the stark color contrast will work (pommele sapele/ribbon-stripe sapele body, jatoba fretboard, cream binding, gold hardware)
Thanks.