Kinked Fret
No fixing a kinked fret
That's right! A kinked fret is a goner. Once I learned to accept that, my fretting life became a bit less stressful.
If you've read anything I've written about refretting, you've heard me say I never hit a fret with a steel hammer:
It's easy to deliver too strong a blow with a steel hammer. You can scratch or ding a fret with a steel hammer, too. Don't get me wrong, though, because lots of luthiers do great work with a steel hammer. I just like my little plastic Stanley.
Besides, you don't have to use a steel hammer to kink a fret. Hit it hard enough, and you can do a great job with a plastic hammer, especially if you hit it with a corner of the hammer's face:
So, that's it. A kinked fret is a dead fret.
Out goes the bad fret, in goes the good fret.