Acoustic Guitar Construction

This is a process which closely follows Teeter's method -- at one time Don was a technical consultant at the Martin factory

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/fretdressing.html

That's so close to the method I use the differences aren't even worth mentioning. I do repair work as well as build. People love my fret work. My handle is a piece of tongue and groove oak flooring I made before I found the design Ken uses (from Teeter's book?) The tongue portion worked great and I've had it so long it's like an old friend now.

Are you basically trying to restore the fret to the shape it had before it was installed? I have a stewmac fret file and it does not crown the fret to its pristine shape. The Teeter method and tool, which I use, does a bit better job, but if I have a real flat spot on a fret I've leveled, it's difficult to get it back to that original shape.
Any hints? Other than don't level so hard?

I'm just at the fret dressing stage of my first build too, so this topic is very timely. I made a wooden tool as Ken suggests and it works well for turning the flat spot created by the preceding leveling step into a curved top. I wonder though if the top of the fret is okay to be mushroom shaped or if the sides of the fret should be steeper.

I use a Gurian crowning file ( http://www.pilgrimsprojects.biz/t29.html ) after I've leveled, then 320, 400 and 600 grit (using the handle) to take out the scratches and I finish it off with blue then pink 3M Flexible Polishing Papers (from stewmac).

Tim, do the files re-crown the frets to their original shape, or is a little mushrooming acceptable?

This is what I use for major fret shaping/crowning I think this guy has a good price as well

http://www.pilgrimsprojects.biz/t29.html