How to remove tan from neck?

How do luthiers remove a fretboard from a guitar neck? (10 Points)?

• I've seen youtube videos showing a way where you get a damp clothing item and lay it atop the guitar's neck and heat it with an iron to loosen the glue and then stick razor blades in between the fretboard and neck and work your way up. However, I don't want to risk ruining the neck by the razorblades and the constant force necessary to separate the two. So how does a luthier do this task? I don't want to pay 300 dollars for something I can do myself.

• Answer:

  These days a common way is to use a thermostatically controlled fretboard-shaped silicone heat blanket to soften the glue, after which the fretboard is carefully separated with specially shaped knives. There used to be a thermostatted neck heating iron on the market but now it is only available from Germany at prohibitive cost, last I heard. People have improvised various other ways of doing it with kitchen irons or metal bars heated in an oven, too, but it's a very tricky job at best. Too much heat and you can damage the neck finish. This is a very advanced repair that requires skill and experience, and I don't recommend trying it yourself on a guitar you aren't prepared to throw away. Skill in touchup work is also needed. Why do you want to remove the board? P.S. It is a heck of a lot easier to replace inlays than a whole fretboard, and intonation is adjusted at the bridge, a simple and straightforward procedure.