Official Luthiers Forum!

Its out of much frustration that I am posting this message....again!....I spent hours yesterday trying to bind the heastock with bloodwood but without success.

I took many of you guys' suggestions to bend the wood, I used a backing support, even boiled the strips. But they either snapped or got totally scorched without bending. I tryed settings between 300 to 350 degrees but all the same result.

Too bad I have already the fingerboard bound in bloodwood or I would just consider another wood.

The strips are around .055 to .060 thick, maybe I should thin them out a bit more or try veneer softener?

Help please

well, the good news are I still have 2 pieces of binding left! peterm38878.8033449074

_________________
Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Peter,

I am trying to remeber, what shape is your headstock? Can you post a picture for us? I think that would help to see what your are up against. Sounds like it is plenty thin, but maybe a few thousands less would be the secret? I don't know, but there must be a way to make it work. Walk away for a bit, that always helps me.

Jeff

Here's some headstocks....



Thanks

_________________
Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Peter, do you bend on a bender and if so, do you wrap your wood in aluminum or craft paper?

My best bet would be craft paper with lots of water, what's your set up please?

Peter,

It might be easier doing 5 pieces with mitred joints - top, 2 sides and 2 bottom curves that meet the nut.

Or 3 pieces - 2 for the sides and one for the top.Dave White38879.247025463

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

If you are having that much trouble freehand on a pipe, then you need a form IMO. I bent two sets of bloodwood binding last week (.090), expecting some cracking after reading about the woes in here, but none showed up, and this is on a fairly tight waist and upper bout curve). Fox bender, spring steel slats, blanket at about 300 or so (I dont measure it, I just know its at a sweet spot - bends anything from EIrw to ebony at this setting). So, take a piece of baltic ply, or even MDF, build up abotu 3 inches of height and cut the shape you are after into it - now you have an inner and outer form to press into - use the spring steel and a blanket, a couple bar type clamps and go. I do floentine cutaway pieces this way, works beautifully (well the form is 6 inches high for these).

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

If you have good straight grained bloodwood, it is easy to bend. If you have runnout or crooked grain, throw it away and get some decent wood. Folks seem to have the idea that one can take any board and make luthier wood out of it. Not so. There is furniture wood and there is tonewood. That is why the latter costs more. The kiln dried board from the exotic lumber place is not necessarily worth buying for instrument use. Lots of folks seem to want to go this route and cut their own wood to save a vew bucks. You usually get what you pay for

Grant

I'd have to agree with Grant here. But it is at least possible to find decent tonewood at an exotic wood dealer. I've done it. It requires close inspection, and the willingness to sort through bins of potentially hundreds of pieces of wood, though. When it comes to bloodwood, if you're going to be using it for bindings, watching for grain straightness and runout is critical. The first bloodwood plank I bought had a straight grain but too much runout, and was essentially worthless for binding. I bought a second piece with minimal runout and this one has been working well for me, even through the relatively tight waist bend of a classical.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

OOPS, 1h39 am, i should have went straight to bed, sorry Peter, i guess i was confused...

Thanks guys!

Tony....it might be a good idea to make a small mold for the headstock. I did bend the bindings on my bender for the body and it bent pretty well even with a very tight waist.

I do bend the headstock in 5 segments and then mitre then aglue them on the headstock.

I got this bloodwood from LMI and it has good grain direction and minimal runout.

_________________
Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com