Two rosettes are installed!  

Didn’t get a lot of time to work on things this week.  But the second rosette went in easier than the first.  Both planed and scraped flush with the tops.  For my first guitars and first handmade rosettes, I’m pretty pleased so far. Came out pretty tight with minimal gaps despite the less than perfect hand cut purflings. 

Another quick coat of shellac on before I cut out the sound holes and can start bracing.

This was one of the steps I that was most nervous about because of all the time put into both the rosettes and soundboards, one slip and things could be ruined.  But there are still plenty of those moments ahead.

Phew!  One rosette in.  Just a bit more to clean up, mostly with the scraper.  A couple little chips in the mosaic I need to fill.  Pretty pleased so far.  I was a bit worried as my purfling is cut by hand and is not absolutely consistent.

Based on some advice from a luthiery forum I’ve been posting on I took this top down to around .090” in thickness, after the rosette channel was chiseled out, which is about .050” deep.  I took the other top to .085”.  I need to chisel out the channel on that one.

So far, so good.  I’d knock on wood, but this stuff is fragile!  No need to steam out (another) dent.

Prior plans of planing proceeding presently!

Two redwood tops close to final thickness at around .105”-.110”.  I’ll scrape more after the rosettes are installed.

One walnut back getting close and one more that hasn’t been started yet. Some areas of these were tough as I just avoided some knots.  Had to be really careful in spots.  Final thickness should be around .085”-.090”

Just planes and scrapers so far.  I’ll save any sanding for last possible minute and probably won’t sand the inside surfaces much if any.  Plenty of shavings, but it goes quickly… sometimes too quickly.  Run out is reversed on book matched pieces, as I’ve read, but luckily was able to account for and change methods as soon as I ran into it, which was only on the walnut.

Made a rosette cutter while waiting for glue to dry on my soundboards.

I had made a prototype out of rosewood scraps, but cracked a piece when tightening down the blade, so I made a new one out of aluminum.  Used some bar stock and steel rods.  Just used my drill press, a hack saw, files, and taps and dies.

The blade was a quick HSS one from the reciprocating hack saw blade I’ve been using.  Worked ok, but I’ll make a new one from W1 tool steel, a bit thicker, which I can sharpen to a much better edge.  I set the diameters with a caliper, either adding or subtracting the radius of the pin (.125”) depending on which side of the blade and cutter I measured to.

Tested out on a thin redwood scrap and it worked fairly well.  The outer ring I cut in both directions causing a bit of tear out.  The inner ring I just rotated one direction and it was much cleaner.  Then just a bit of chisel practice.  I think this will work well with a nicer blade with different cutting bevel geometry.  Trial and error so far.

If I only had a little milling machine at home….

Guitar stuff last week…

I decided to use black locust for my fingerboard and bridge.  Cut the rough blanks a month or two ago, yet again, from the old locust post and brought them to the shop to aclimate.  I’ve read that black locust is one of the only North American hardwoods with similar sound to rosewood. So, its got that going for it.

Picked the choice pieces out for two of each and cut down to working dimensions.  I love black locust, but it is light in color, which is not very traditional on guitars, I guess because it gets dirty over time.  However I think a light fingerboard would look pretty good with a redwood top and walnut sides, and I plan to use locust bindings which should pull it all together.

But I figured I’d see if I could darken it, but without simply dying it.  So I tried the ammonia fuming thing again.  Just did some samples.  Locust came out better than the oak I’ve fumed.  I put an oil/wax mixture on one little piece just to see how it looked.

I will probably wait and see how the whole thing looks up until I attach the fingerboard and then decide if I want to fume it or leave it natural.

Ok, got to keep moving on this thing one of these days.

My first home made plane… Isn’t it precious!

Just finished it.  Rosewood sides, not sure what the middle is.  Solid brass drawer pull cut down for the pin.  Didn’t really go off of plans, just figured I’d try.  Test cuts seem to work fine.  May need to tweak a bit later.

This was my first real blade though.  Used 1/2” x 1/8” W1 bar stock.  Cut down, beveled, rough sharpened, heated, quenched, annealed, then final sharpening.

Made it for shaping braces on the soundboard and back of guitars.  So I guess back to that soon…  sometimes I think I subconsciously take on projects just so I can make jigs, fixtures and tools.

So damn cute!  So damn sharp!