I just finished doing a semi inlet the long and tedius way, which is to say that I took that metal in and out of that thing maybe 200 times.

What I am wondering is whether guys that do it all of the time just go ahead and use that square method to get the barrel channel to just a hair under half depth and then start spotting in.

One more question. Is there a way to tell exactly when its time to stop. Because the tendency is to keep removing shavings at the top to get the barrel down in the channel, and then all of a sudden you realize that your starting to leave a bit of a gap up there. Is there an exact time that one can see when its time to stop.

There are regulars on this forum who are much more skilled at this than me but I'll try to pass along some ideas.

You may not be aggressive enough with the mallet when tapping the metal for an impression. Alvin Linden talks about this in his book.

Another little thing I watch for is shiny spots on the metal which usually indicates the metal is touching pretty hard at that spot. Dont remove wood just because you got some black impression on the wood, look for the shiny metal in the same area to confirm it was rubbing pretty tight.

Some of the guys with real talent should jump in on this. I need more insight myself.