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Has anyone come up with a simple jig for shaping (rounding) the ends of a saddle?

I’ve always filed and sanded by hand but it seems like a task crying out for a jig to make it perfect and repeatable every time. My limited intellect just can’t conjure anything up.

A quick web search has come up dry, but maybe someone here has thought about this and come up with a solution.

roundover bit on router table before other shaping

During a typical setup job, I doubt that I would want to take the time to set up my router table, or any other jig, just to put rounded ends on the saddle. It requires a few strokes on PSA backed sandpaper stuck to the bench, and boom, it's done. I guess you could use a fret crowning file. My point is that, other than in a high volume factory setting, I really don't think this is something that needs a jig. It just needs some TLC in the moment.

I'm with Don, PSA on a slab. after thicknessing.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

+1 for keeping it simple.

I use a 12x12 granite tile with 150, 240, 320, and 400 grit 3M Stikit gold paper ready to go. It can’t take me more than a couple of minutes to radius the ends using this setup. I also write the grit on the face of the paper so I don’t screw up as I’m sneaking up on a good tight fit.

Best, M

Thanks for the responses chaps.

The simple way works fine, I was just wondering if anyone had come up with an elegant jig based solution. For one off saddles I agree it’s probably overkill, but perhaps a jig could be useful if making a batch of pre-shaped blanks.

I’ll give it another coat of thinking.

If you want speed you could use a disk sander if you have one set up to quickly get close to the size of the saddle slot and knock off the corners. Like Michael, I have a board that I glued successive grits of sandpaper to. I can start off with course and quickly go through finer grits...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Make a custom sanding stick with a groove in it of the right diameter. Make it long enough and you could finish the job with one stroke!

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

You know those razor knife/box cutter blades that come in dispensers of 100? They have 2 rounded cutouts at the top that fit the handles. Those two rounded cutouts make perfect scrapers for the shape of saddle ends and tops.

Ed

I start with a 45 degree chamfer on the 6 X 89 belt sander followed by a rounding on the same machine ,then hand sand- total time 3 minutes.

Rounding one end is not so difficult — many options. The tricky part is rounding the opposite end while keeping the saddle length perfect.


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Yes, good point.

I have noticed on many guitars from even some prominent makers a gap at one end of the saddle-very disturbing!

Like I said above: a little TLC. It’s easy to go too far.

"Rounding one end is not so difficult — many options. The tricky part is rounding the opposite end while keeping the saddle length perfect."

" I have noticed on many guitars from even some prominent makers a gap at one end of the saddle-very disturbing!"

" Like I said above: a little TLC. It’s easy to go too far."

"I’ve always filed and sanded by hand but it seems like a task crying out for a jig to make it perfect and repeatable every time. "

Treat the end of the saddles like a fret that's been leveled and you are now crowning it.

Or, in other words set your end points and make a pencil mark on what will be the crown of the saddle ends then have at it with a nice file. I like fairly non-aggressive 1/2 round files for saddles. Anyway I make saddles from scratch every week and do the ends by hand and it only takes a minute per end.

It's so quick and a no brainer that a jig for me and our shop which is high volume commercial would be a waste of time, effort and opportunity costs.

Also gaps are not acceptable especially on the ends and pretty easy to not have. Remember too that your nut buffer.... can be a good tool to dial in saddle ends as you are polishing them and removing scratches.

That is one of the first things I look at when evaluating a guitar for fit and finish. I have a few saddle blanks sitting around that didn't quite make the grade.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Yep, every once in a while I have to remake a nut or saddle. I'm picky about what goes out on customer instruments.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"