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Was wondering how difficult/possible it will be to bend koa around a Martin-style headstock. Since the edges will be rounded slightly there will be no miters. Has anyone had success doing this with wood binding? That is gonna be a tight radius bend. Just curious.

thanks.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

I bound an SJ head stock in Koa on my 6th several years ago and it bent well. But it was not a Martin shaped head stock. But I do recall that it bent easily on a pipe. Mario is the king if bending tight radiuses around a hot bolt. Perhaps he will he will weigh-in here and help you out.



And yeah I know I strung it up wrong..... It was 3 in the morning and I was so very close to being done that I could not sleep and finished it in my bathroom shop in my boxer shorts and neglected to notice that I strung it up wrong until after it took some pics........

Of course it would be against all that's morally right to restring it before it reaches the 5 year mark.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Perhaps something like this?



This is a headstock on a guitar that my bro and I built together.
Granted it's not Koa, but it is curly maple, presenting about the same challenge.
Those corners are mitered.
What I had to do was dampen the ends, and pound them into a slight curve, to match that small radius. Then they were mitered to fit the opposite ends which had the same treatment.
It's harder to describe than to execute, but there is some fussing/fidgeting involved.

Is this what you were thinking?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

But of course....

yeah Steve that's about what I would be up against. My corners may be slightly rounder than yours but still very close. I was wondering about bending and then mitering if it would show up. Did you use an angled mitre joint there? Looks good what you did though.

thanks.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Yes, that is "roughly" a 45 degree on each face.
Well, probably a 47 on one, and a 45 on the other. Or something like that. I worked myself into that corner--so to speak--cuz I wanted to simply wrap that b/w purfling around the corner and keep it continuous. As I believe Martin does. That left me the slightly rounded corner you see in the photo, and the problem of bending the binding around a 1/16" radius. Again, my solution was to bang that binding lightly w/ a hammer into the beginnings of the curve, then miter it. Oh, by the way, when the binding comes down to the "flare" into the neck shaft (some call that the hyoid) it was simply wetted and forced around that slight angle. No miter there at all. A continuous strip whick looks much cleaner.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com