Inlays: v carve vs square. Pros and cons?

I seem to be the exception. I used to make guitars and the inlay work was a feature, all my inlay work was “square”. Sure wish I had the Nomad then! One reason I prefer square cuts is that I inlay MOP, silver, gold, stone and more in addition to wood. I would consider v-carve inlays for, say, a cutting board or sign but for smaller detailed work, such as a jewerly box of headstock, square cut.

As far a “likely having gaps”, not if you take care. I mill the pockets a very small amount larger than the inlay, typically about 0.027 mm for inlays on the order of 20 - 50 mm. (I do this by claiming the bit, as a separate tool, is 0.055 mm smaller than it is.)

It is true you can automatically get “sharper corners” with v-carved work but my work is mostly organic and I can accept corner radii of 0.178 mm. But when truely I need a sharp corner it’s easy enough to remove the radius with a sharp blade as long as there aren’t too many.

Mind you, I’m using a Nomad which has excellent precision and repeatability, no matte lines. YMMV if using a Shapeoko.

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