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Most of my guitars are very simple, built to cut time and increase output. However, I'm starting to look ahead towards some fancier stuff, and I've seen a few rosettes here and there with the type of fancy that floats my boat.

If anyone has any resources on how to learn this kinda stuff, I'd love to know. Books, videos etc...

Hi Ed,

Al Carruth has a nice how to in the archives on the MIMF forum.

Steve

If you search the MIMF archives you can find discussions on various techniques for making purflings and rosettes. Marquetry books might also show you techniques to make repetitive designs.
It might be a rabbit hole you are sending yourself down. Making fancy guitars and "Production" are somewhat mutually exclusive. Even when Martin was a much smaller factory in the early 1900's they would buy in the purflings for their guitars. There are specialist makers who will create custom purflings and rosettes for a minimum order:

https://www.karin-rost.com/

I think Mick Lazar also had a tutorial on making "wheat" purfling lines and rosettes in the MIMF archives.

The John Bogdanovich book and accompanying DVDs have been very helpful to me.

For inspiration, you could look at the rosettes on Burton Legeyt's site. http://www.legeytinstruments.com/new-page-1

For inspiration and detailed how-to videos, check out Stephen Faulk's videos on youtube, starting with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89jxbA5rOc
While these particular rosettes are more typical of classical and flamenco guitars, the ideas could be adapted for all kinds of rosettes.

Clay is quite right to point out that fancy guitars and "production" are _somewhat_ exclusive, but there's an overlap when the fancy elements are made efficiently and used in different combinations on multiple guitars.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

yeah, anything like that would be a once in a while enjoyment build...

Hi Ed,
I didn't mean to imply that you should never spend the time to make a rosette. Sorry if it came off that way.
Many custom guitar makers come up with a distinctive design and have someone produce it for them. It makes the guitar recognizable, similar to peghead designs and body shapes. And specialist suppliers can often produce the item more economically and of higher quality than the guitar shop.
As an amateur I make some rosettes, buy some ready made, and modify others. I don't have the same constraints of production and profitability a professional has. Making rosettes can be fun to do, although the results I get are often less than spectacular.
The Courtnall book gives a fairly detailed description on how to make rosettes using veneers and "tile blocks" similar to the way Tunbridge ware was made (another source you might want to look at for construction methods).
As a "pass time" making rosettes might provide a way to destress and be creative and yet still be a little productive. I was only trying to point out that you can have a design that is unique to your brand, somewhat fancy, and still be affordable on your normal production instruments.
A brief tutorial on making Tunbridge ware:
http://www.redbridgemarquetrygroup.org/ ... orial.html

Nae bother, thanks for the link!

If you can find someone in Vancouver with an old Lewis Luthier Supply catalog or an early Luthier's Mercantile catalog, there's a step by step method by Bill Lewis. If not, I think I have mine from way back around somewhere. I could scan the pages and email them to you.

Brent

Huge rabbit hole to get lost in! Rewarding, though. Classical builders Michael Thames and Stephen Faulk make world class rosettes. They have videos on youtube. There are others, but these guys stand out.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

That'd be neat!

Eugene Clark gave a thorough description of his technique in GAL 71 and 73 if you have access to them. I think his method was pretty singular to him but then this seems to be true of everyone who tackles this.

Cheers Dave

Hi Ed. Got the pages scanned. Now, where to email ?

Here's something I found, https://jsevy.com/luthierie/guitarmakin ... aking.html

Lotsa good stuff so far, thanks!

Robbie Obrien has an online class as well.

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Michael Thames has updated his CL gtr rosette making for 2019 . Looked at it the other day on youtube. Its quite long and very thorough . Believe he has been a luthier for over 40 yrs nowLatest issue of the GAL has an article on making rope binding. IMHO very time consuming.but a very cool ol timey hawaiian look from 100 yrs ago.

Definitely enjoyed the Michael Thames vids. There seems to be quite a bit of info about the classical tile style, but I'm also looking for info on the marquetry types that I pictured above...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Psct2JBGY0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWUzfdJU8jc
Parquetry techniques might be what you want to study up on.

Yeah, that's the sort!

Hi Ed,
I did a simple tutorial a long time ago for the rosette I make. I don't use a drill press circle cutter anymore but a lot of the info is still what I do. viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=16350&p=232966&hilit=side+grain+rosettes#p232966

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Very nice, thank you!

Steve Latta is the go-to guy for federal furniture - great craftsman and fine instructor. Just saw him 2 weeks ago at a Williamsburg woodworking conference.

He designed all of the inlay and banding tools offered by Lie Nielson. He cuts and sizes all manner of long skinny parts easily by hand, Here he is showing how to sharpen the blades on a strip thicknessing tool that many of us have made - I get mixed results out of mine and now I know the blade need to be more blunt with a burr making it a scraper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_6sqoXE9po

He also has a small auxiliary bench that clamps to the top of a regular bench for all of his fine and close work. Here is FWW showing it to you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIguWLiQHOs

Other Ed