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I'm about to do my first headstock with a binding that has a single perfling of ~.020" on the inside. Some of the surfaces are flat, which is no big deal, but I do have a couple edges that have curves. Normally, I use a bending iron to bend the pieces, but with the perfling I'm trying to figure out if I can glue the two together and then bend it, or if I need to bend the thicker outside piece and let the inner thin piece go along for the ride during glue-up.

Any advice from those who have done this sort of thing?

Thanks in advance.

I usually do the last option (bend the thicker outside piece and let the inner thin piece go along for the ride during glue-up). The .020 purfling should cold bend easily during the glue up, assuming it is not a brittle wood. You could do a dry run to see if this will work. Laminating the strips ahead of time actually makes it a bit more difficult to get a gap free job, especially on curved surfaces.

FYI.... using the recommended approach worked great. Plus the outer pieces were a little thinner than what I usually use (thinner by the perfling width) and that made them much easier to bend around some of our tight curves on the headstock.

Pics...? Dave