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I finished up the pegs yesterday. Looking at the photo I just took, I need to scrape, and burnish them some more. I sealed them with some shellac. It helped tame the frays some. Then burnishing with an awl worked to smooth them up, and make them look like they were worn smooth. I went through them and just touch my fingertip on the top of the shellac to put a coat on them, and it looks too shiny now. I'll fix them up.
I turn the taper on them. My compound is set to my reamer. Just standard taper, not sure what that is; I never move it. I rough them 8mm diameter straight Now I take one cut to the tip at 15 on the dial, and back up to the head at 25. I think it is a .25mm/side cut. Ends up at a little over 6mm at the tip, and 7.25 or so at the big end. The dial says that each line is .05mm. I work in d.o.c and not total stock. Machinist habit. It's been a Long Time since I ran a hand lathe all day long.

I'll have to buy some stock for making pegs, I don't have any. Katalox worked really nice, and it turns well. Some stock I tried (Rosewood of some kind?) was splintery. Didn't like that. This cherry is just too fuzzy.

They are just little guys.

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Why be normal?

Real nice looking pegs, Ken.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mesquite would probably be the ultimate peg wood, being hard and having the lowest humidity expansion of just about anything.

Coming along nicely, Ken. I'm enjoying this thread, thanks for sharing your work.

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Yesterday I didn't do much, just reamed out the peg holes. But my purfling finally arrived. Sometimes the mail has been good, sometimes it is terrible. I bought violin and viola. There are 3 strands to a set. Taped together in batches of 9 and 12. All set right? They were all mixed up! I had to measure each one, and make two new piles. They had the right number of each. I have no idea how they managed that.

I watched a pretty cool video yesterday of making a Flamenco guitar, and found that the cross bars on the belly are glued on to the sides. I'm going to just use the two transverse bars instead of the double X bracing. I'll make another with the double X, and see the difference between them. Of course I NEVER compare apples to apples. I always switch too many things; but something as different as those two bracing patterns should be obvious.

I put small linings on it, just to make it easier to glue. I'll build on the back next time.

Ten pegs on a small head eats up real estate.

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Well, I glued the rosette in. I use hide glue. As usual, I forgot to put a coat of shellac on before cutting the channels, but nothing chipped out. The spruce isn't as "dry" feeling as the 100 year old cedar. But it doesn't seem prone to chipping, or splitting either. Now I have to make some harmonic bars; glue them on, and tune them.

I still haven't found out why they call them harmonic bars.

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I glued the bars on yesterday, but today all I did was check how much it deflects as a free plate (about .100" between the bridge and the bar and maybe .06" at the bridge.) and then I taped it on the body to check it out all together. It doesn't move at all at the top. Surprise. It seems to be about .03-.05" around the bridge; it was moving around, and only taped on. Checking the Helmholtz frequency and it is about D above the low C. That should be pretty good. It's only about a tone to half a tone above my Archtop.

The bars are 18mm high, and 3.25 mm wide. I don't know what to do with them. I curved the ends, and then angled them to fit in the linings. I'll probably just leave them as they are, and glue it up. But I have to cut the fingerboard and tongue out to fit first. The belly is almost 10% lighter than the other one. The bracing, and ERC isn't light.

Yes, I couldn't avoid 3 worm holes. I'll glue in some toothpicks.

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Well, I think I add a rosette for the sound hole. It's supposed to be a baroque, and they are supposed to be ornate. I've never been one for ornate, but I got a crazy cool set of plans for Voboam guitars today for my birthday. From Jan van Cappelle https://thedutchluthier.wordpress.com Those guys back then had too much time on their hands. And crazy skill. So, I'll come up with some subdued insert, and maybe even a pared back mustache. It's going to take a while to get that kind of skill. Plus, the rest of it is plan Jane, so I can't go overboard.

It should be fun.

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Many of the "roses" were made of parchment. If you know someone who is good at paper cutting you might be able to get them to make you one.
https://www.google.com/search?q=parchme ... 5THee2SbuM:

Roses are a thing all their own. I've seen some that just like scenes. The plans I got have 9 pages of rosettes that are made of layers of parchment. I haven't checked into paper and parchment yet.

I worked on a design last night to incorporate the mustache that I drew in, but didn't plan on using. I'll put in on, in the same rosewood as the fb and binding, and add an inlay across the top of the cherry bridge to tie them together. I'll use that scroll like motif on the rose. I was going to use something like that on the ring around the outside of the sound hole, but went with the flamed mahogany instead.

A ring of rectangles with the motif rotating, drawn in with a sharpie. 8 larger motifs cut out, and glued to that, and angled down to a small ring, with a spiral motif cut in the center of that that will be pulled down.

At the top, 5 curves of rosewood that match the guitar outline; kind of like a flowing staff.

I think with sketches. I have sketches everywhere. Figure out how many rectangles of what size will fit in. In my head it seems cool. Now to execute.

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I glued black veneer, 6mm wide or so around the inside of the sound hole, cut out the rosewood "waves" and glued them on. I started out wanting even spacing, and it just wasn't happening. The end result was even better. Don't you love it when your way turns out not to be the best?

I'm not going to put the design on the edge. It looks fine without it.

I tried some sealers/grounds/ first coats on three pieces of the cedar top. I thought I could test varnish over the top, instead of guessing like I usually do. I know how shellac works, and some of my other concoctions; but I had some other weird things laying around, and it was time to test them, and maybe get rid of them.

One one fir resin covered in borax water. It is like water, but it doesn't seem to soak in. It is the shiniest of all of them. Maybe I'll try thinning it more with alcohol, and see if it soaks in better then.

Another was some really old linseed oil that I had boiled with madder root, and it sat around for a few years after that. I put it in a jar, and poured some terpene; turpentine that in the sun in a glass jug, with a bubbler on it for a few months. You end up with a lot less than what you started with. The oil is still in a clump, but I spread on some of the liquid. It seems to soak in a lot better. It isn't nearly as shiny, and even seems to fill some, whereas the fir just makes shine. It is also a bit redder from the madder.

The third was just a small clump of that congealed oil that had the madder root in it. It is like an orange paste/gum. I poked it with a toothpick, and spread some on with my finger. It seems to go on like hard wax. It actually looks pretty good. It has just a sheen, and doesn't have much of a feel to it. It doesn't feel waxy or oily. I really didn't use much of any of them, just a little on a toothpick or finger.

I've read where some classical builders use oil or wax on their bellies. Would a finish like the last one qualify as that? They are on the bench top to bottom.

Yeah, the mahogany cracked when filing it flat. It wasn't all the way down because it was TOO tight. Another lesson learned. Now I have to try to hide it.

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The other day I clued on the belly. Yesterday I worked on scraping the sides smooth. They were close to flat, but not quite in some spots. I have them angled because I have a plan for another baroque that I've had for a while. I have a form for it, but I need some Katalux to make the back and sides. It has a bent back like an old mandolin. The sides were tapered, so I made the form tapered to try it. I thought I did it because I have a cello form like that too. It's probably try try it out for both of them. It works.

I measured them after trimming the edge of the belly. The bottom is 12mm wider on the belly; the middle is 17mm wider, and the top is 12mm wider. More than I thought. Does is do anything acoustically? I don't know.

I have to add a purfling inside the binding. The base of the neck is a little too narrow. I changed my spacing and didn't change my drawing. I updated the top at the head, but not at the heel. I think with binding and purfling I can make it good. So now I need it everywhere so it will look like I planned it that way.

When I was sawing out the dovetail, the saw made a cut off the line, and I have to glue in a piece of maple to rectify it. I thought of doing the binding on the sides of the neck. But I saw Brad's dovetail post about no shortcuts, and thought better of that idea. The joint came out fine, except for the saw cut; why hide it? Just fix it, (and the little chip out on the other side that I didn't see until yesterday)

So next will be my second foray into binding an inlay. I cut and glued the purfling on a violin belly the other day rather painlessly, so maybe I'm getting more patient? We'll see.

The belly gained a ring tone when I glued the bridge on. Before it was just sort of dull. With the bridge it rings at Low F#. You can also hear a strong tone an perfect octave lower if you tap on the edge. Does it man anything? No, it is cool though.

Too lazy today to crop the photos?

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hey Ken,
Check out some images for Chitarra Battente:

https://www.google.com/search?q=chitarr ... 8Olsec2XyM

Clay,
That's what draws me to the older guitars. They are all different. I like different. I'm from Detroit, but the cars that I like on my weekly calendar are the oddballs. Sorry, most American cars do nothing for me. There are some, but not many. Like this weeks car, a crazy cool thing from '55. I like engineering marvels, but style gets your attention first. That thing is wild. Yeah, I might open up the front wheels, and close the rears, like the Citroen DS; another cool car; and the side seam doesn't grow gradually, but it is cool, and original.



This is the project I need the Katalox for. I have the mold made, I wouldn't add all the white squiggles. That's a bit over the top for me! I do like the black and white mosaics on the belly though, and I would put those on, and a more subdued rose. It would be hard enough making it CLEAN, without adding all the extras. The plan that is on the wall in one of the photos is available from the maker.

http://schreinerlutesandguitars.blogspot.com/2013/06/?m=1
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/128556/guitar?ctx=749747c3-5404-4d9a-8775-984e231fb7ee&idx=42

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I cut the binding and purfling channel. It's a 3.25 X 1.25mm or so rosewood binding, and standard violin purfling. I made a couple of purfling cutters for violins that works pretty good. I have spacers, so I could do a double purfling Maggini 5 string, and it is set up so that one is set for the inside, and one for the outside. It works for the width down for the binding, and the width in to the inside of the purfling. I used the first one that I made up that is big enough for cello for the thin width of the binding, and the depth of the purfling. The only drawback on it is the wedge for the blade. The spacing wedge holds. Yeah, it holds. The blade can sometimes fall out.



They cut pretty well. The blade is sharpened to cut in either direction.



I'm cutting a piece of rosewood to go around the top of the button, and at the bottom the purfling will curve around. It just came into my head, and it sounded good.



When I got done with the cutting on both sides, I saw a couple dings in the neck. Water didn't do much for them, maybe water and a heat gun? There is something to be said for a laminated neck with birch, hard maple or something tough in the middle.

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I put a wet cloth on the dent then touch it with a soldering iron. The steam is what raises the dent.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve wrote: "I put a wet cloth on the dent then touch it with a soldering iron. The steam is what raises the dent."

+ 1.

I used to use an clothes iron on the damp cloth, but the soldering iron puts the heat, and steam, right where I want it. I'd be afraid the heated air from a heat gun might warm things I didn't want warmed.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

I've used the soldering iron for small dents, but for the past few I've used the HF wood burning hobby tool. It has a number of different tips.The spade shaped one seems to work especially well.
https://www.harborfreight.com/30-watt-5 ... 63850.html

I don't have a soldering iron, or gun, so I placed a needle file on the bending iron. It worked great; yes, I wore gloves! Thanks for the tip guys!

I'm starting to glue on the purfling and binding. I found a couple things to change the next time. Use REAL binding that isn't .3-.5 mm thicker than what the finish is. It makes it harder to bend. At least it is harder when the sides are tapered, and the back has a bit of a curve. I'll get it, but not from the get go. It would save a lot of time planing and filing too.

Another thing is to keep the neck sides square if you are going to do binding on the fingerboard/fretboard. I didn't plan on using them, but if I had left the neck big, it might have been wide enough to work without adding the binding. I just started doing that on violins on the last one.

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Nice job on the binding and purfs with the hand tools. I did that once.....once.

I have this little guy ready for the mustache, and then varnishing. But I want to fill and seal it first. I did fill in some around the binding with hog and rosewood dust. The binding and purfling came out good. Even the ones around the fingerboard came out good, I wasn't so sure about them. Putting them on an angle wasn't easy, but that's what I had. Wide neck next time, and carve after.

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Looks like you're having fun, Ken. Nice job

Ed

Nice work, Ken
Your in the home stretch!

Gorgeous!

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I gave the guy a little attitude yesterday. Yeah, I purposely made it wonky. He's a character. Now I'm going to spend some time cleaning up. The new bench for assembly, yeah right, is messy. The main carving, sawing, planing, bending bench is messy. The bench that is supposed to be for varnish is messy.

I ALMOST had them all clean in June.

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