Official Luthiers Forum!

Bob, that's a beauty for sure. I hope you didn't have to cut out those pieces, but were able to purchase them? (Man, that would be a lot of tedium.) And were they inlaid into a black mastic?

Bro, many thanks. As you are the more artistic of the Kinnaird bros, I appreciate the kudos no end.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Steve, I got the inlays from Andy DePaul... they are hand cut, believe it or not!... and yes, they are in black epoxy.

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Very nice rosette Steve, Glad you did it the hard way, I always though using the "goo method" was cheating anyway.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Thanks, Bob. Yeah, those do have a Vietnamese look to 'em.

John, thank you for the nod. I really thought about the goo method, but knowing how sloppy I am, I figured that would end up being more work in the long run, what with cleanup, scraping, etc.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

That's a nice one, alright: the extra space around the shell elements really makes it look classy.

It ought to be possible to make the wood background as a log or logs that fit around the pearl and could be sliced up and stuck in. Suppose you drilled a hole the size of the dot in a piece of wood a couple of inches thick. Plane it off to remove half of the hole. Trim it to length on either side, and bevel the ends off to fit the taper of the diamonds. Slice it up, and put the wood pieces in around the circle. you could trim off the edges to the proper curve after the parts were in. This way you could use something like curly koa as a background, and not be limited to black. It would be tricky making it precise enough to look good, but that's the challenge.

That's what I love about making rosettes: there's so much you can do with the designs.

Many thanks, Al! You guys have got me feeling pretty good about the design. Al, your idea is a solid one...I like it. I like the idea of milling into a blank the needed precision, then slicing off segments.
These particular lozenges would be a bit of bother though as the sides are concave. Also, getting all the points to line up would be a challenge. The segment lines plus the circle "guided" the four points of the diamond, but each one had to be fudged. All four points could not hit the described lines. That's the beauty of a black background!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I like the ball and diamond pattern! Looks very classic!
Good job Steve!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Thanks, Billy!
Picture that as a necklace around JJ's pooch?

SK

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com