If you don't do it regularly, standard tools will tolerate stainless, albeit with some accelerated wear. Oddly enough, the files seem to suffer the least. Fret tang nippers and cutters can get ruined fast, though. The stuff I had from StewMac lasted less than one job, although they weren't new at the time. But, if there's a tool you need because you don't have it, it only makes sense to buy the stuff designed to chew on stainless. Even if you don't do a lot of stainless work, the durability and design of the better tools makes working on standard frets a breeze.
If you need
new fret tang nippers, the only ones that I've found to last job after job on stainless are the recently available parts from Summit Tools, which are sold by
Jescar. It's an expensive tool, but whaddaya gonna do? If you have to buy the cheaper tool repeatedly, you're certainly not saving any money.
They also sell a tempting tool they call a "
straight overhang fret-end cutter" that looks like a handy thing, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's so easy to wreck the fretboard with them I can't believe they even sell the stupid things. I had to refret a neck I had just fretted because the tool dented the fretboard all up and down the neck and I didn't notice it while it was happening. The only way to repair the dents was to remove the frets and resurface the 'board, then fret it again. What a pain in the shorts. Stupid me, right? Don't know how to use it? So, I tried it again on another neck, knowing what I knew and being careful to avoid what I had determined the problem to be.
Very difficult to avoid. It can be done, but at the end of the day, it's a lotta work that you can do almost as easily with their
standard end cutters and no risk.
