Thickness of ebony inlay...

[JB2]

On a sxs shotgun?  It's to fill a gap around the front finial of the trigger plate.  Should it be just thick enough to go to bottom of the trigger plate inletting, or deeper?  Trigger plate is about 1/8" thick, and there is plenty of wood under the plate to make the inlay 1/4" thick.  I have a piece of ebony left over from a knife project big enough to fill the gap.  Thought is to make it just a large oval, about .75 wide x 1.5" long, around 'pineapple' potion of the trigger plate.
 
I think I'd rather have a contrasting inlay than trying to match up this walnut, but I've also heard there are issues with gluing ebony to other woods.  I also have some mahogany that might not stand out after finishing, that might be easier to glue in. 

This is on a Pedersoli kit that an acquaintance was never going to finish.  I'm putting a screw into the standing breech, but it  ends up in exactly the thinnest part of the trigger plate, with not enough material to support a screw.  Plan is to cut the plate, weld material in to make it longer, but this will put the 'pineapple' finial (ha!) at least 1/4-3/8" ahead of the factory inletting. 

[Kermit]

I used a lot of ebony details building craftsman furniture, Greene & Greene style. A good close fit and yellow glue worked just fine. A few times a piece came back for repairs due to damage rather than workmanship failure. The glue joint was always intact, with the primary wood (cherry, mahogany, maple, walnut) cracked or split. I wouldn't worry if you get a tight fit and leave it clamped 24 hours. If you are going to need to chisel-shape-carve the ebony, you might want to give the glue joint a few more days to really set up. Thickness of the piece inlaid is far less important than the quality of your fit.

[Smoketown]

Jim B,

Ebony is a naturally “oily” wood.

We used to ‘de-grease’ the ebony with acetone or lacquer thinner.
Then, we painted a thinned layer of epoxy (Acraglass) on the surfaces to be bonded to seal it.
Acraglass was also used to mount it.

Now, it’s common to ‘de-grease’ then, use regular Super-Glue to seal it.
When mounting the piece, Super-Glue ‘gel’ is then used as it gives a longer time to get it into position.

Super-Glue gel and sanding dust is also used to fill cracks … It works really well!

I gleaned this information from ‘gun stocking’ and ‘bag piping’ web sites.

Although the quality is not what it once was, many musical instruments were and are still made from ebony. 

The worse my hearing gets, the more I like bag pipes!!

Cheers,
Smoketown
(Another - Jim B)

[Kermit]

The wipe down isn't necessary with any "oily" wood if it's fairly freshly milled or sanded. Ebony isn't a major offender. Now TEAK...