Wood shopping therapy

Still french polishing. Getting close to letting the first guitar cure for a week.
In the mean time I went to a local sawmill this morning. Oh boy. Mostly looking for neck and binding material. I picked up some cherry, hard maple, and flamed maple from local trees. And a board of ginkgo just for kicks.
They also had quite an array of exotics. Got some Spanish cedar and a big board of bloodwood.
Really nice local mill prices. The exotics were just over half the total cost. Now I need to figure out what to use it for.
I could do serious damage here on the cheap if I felt like digging through stacks. Maybe later.

Pore filling with pumice

Slowly getting the hang of the pumice pore filling. That and trying to fix every imperfection that is now quite apparent.
Still some work to do on the filling. Played with the French polish a bit in spots. That will take some trial and error too. This will be a long process.
Yard work and planning some minor shop upgrades to break the monotony. Also scoping out some wood and working up details for the next guitar.

Shellac- wash coats

First of three wash coats of shellac on both guitars. Then I can start to pore fill with pumice.
At last, the lengthy french polishing process begins.

Heel cap

Fashioned a heel cap from scrap pieces from my rosette. Glued that in place last night. Started carving the neck early this morning.
Router is in and bits should arrive today so hopefully I can get back to the binding on number two.

Locust Bridges and Fretboards

Bridges and fret boards all ready to fume.

Fret slotting fixture

Planed down my locust fingerboards. Made a quick fixture to slot them. Used 14 gauge galvanize that I marked off and notched to locate in the fixture.
Done with one. On to two.
Will prep and sand these fully along with the bridges. Then fume them to darken before I attach.

Butt plate from rosette scraps

Scraping on my mind…
Up early. So I scraped the binding and purfling on the back of guitar number one.
Came out ok. Could be much neater and cleaner. The top binding leaves a lot to be desired. Oh well. That’s what I get for the first time and using just hand tools. I like the mosaic butt plate though. Ties in nicely with the rosette.
I may use a router for number two. I’d really like to have one of these guitars be really tight.

My japanese maple. Nicest place in the yard to relax.

Had to do a major pruning to the Japanese maple yesterday. Love this thing, especially when its red in early spring. It’s like sitting under a 16’ tall bonsai.

Results of hand chiseled binding a purfling ledges

Here are the hand chiseled binding and purfling ledges on the back of guitar number one. I had to take a few days off and get my head back in a good space to do this detail work. It was not easy. Still some clean up to do.
Overall, I’m not super happy with the binding on this one. Hope to improve on the next.
As much as I’m not a fan of routers, if I make more guitars I will definitely fabricate a nice fixture and go that route.

Binding and butt plate- guitar one

Binding channels on one almost done.  Still need to carry them into the neck and heel.  Not very pretty, but they should clean up a bit and hopefully work ok.  Decided to glue on the butt strip in the mean time.

I must say, this was my least favorite part.  Not very easy, especially when the grain on the top or back likes to be cut in the opposite direction of the sides.  I also realized I need to add purfling to the back, just so I don’t have a walnut on walnut joint.  I should be able to cut enough little strips of locust, I only need 4.  That also requires chiseling out a tiny channel around the back, approximately 1/16” wide, but only about half way through the thickness of the back plates, which is about .040” deep.

I’ll finish the second one by hand too.  Not sure if I would do it again though.