She is definitely awesome. I married way up on the ladder with her.

Thank you I appreciate that. I'm curious how it'll look under finish too. I'm hoping it'll pop nicely and add some nice variety to the look.

Binding is on, but pictures will have to come later as I'm a doofus and totally forgot to take them before I left for work today.

Also wanted to give a little shoutout to Luthier's Mercantile. I had previously ordered some purfling and other parts from them for this build. Upon arrival the purfling they sent me was actually the incorrect type/style etc...

A quick phone call and they ended up letting me keep the incorrect purfling (which I will use on another build) but they sent the correct purfling right away. So kudos to LMII. Great company and great people.

Kudos!
 

Will, this is just a very cool thread!

I am impressed with your ability to make lemonade out of the tiny space lemon.

Count me another fan of your wife, as well! So great to have a supportive spouse!

Carry on and stay well!

Paul

Thank you Paul, I'm a big fan of hers as well.

Big update time. Had a bit of extra time this weekend to get the purfling installed. I had previously routed out a small channel on the top for the purfling but it ended up being a little too narrow for the material I had chosen. It's my mistake since I just mis-measured by a small bit.

But I have tools to fix it. And for the job I chose my violin purfling cutter and a simple dentist's scaler. The scaler lets me easily remove the waste, the purfling cutter works quite a bit better than something like a gramil because of the blade design. It does take a little practice but once you get it, you get it.

I worked my way around the whole guitar one piece at a time. I run the cutter across the area a few times, then carefully lift out the slices of spruce. The result is actually much cleaner than the line I had routed previously.

https://i.imgur.com/YcAHPgIl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2egdRyHl.jpg

It was a bit tedious, but working around the guitar you can see it starting to take shape. For this guitar I opted to use a single black line to help separate the light colored binding from the top and make it stand out a bit. If I hadn't mentioned it before the binding on this one is sycamore. Bends easy and works easy, plus it is very similar to maple in looks so it goes well with things like rosewood.

After a bit of work and some sanding to bring everything flush the purfling is installed. I like clean separation of lines and the black definitely does that for this one.

https://i.imgur.com/FQkrPcpl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CTGKuvNl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BQJdt1Tl.jpg

And with some light out this morning here's where she sits currently. You can see the fadeaway on the upper bout starting to stand out a little more but I love how the black highlights the whole piece. It's making me want to work with some other more complex purfling styles in the future. Maybe a herringbone guitar of some variety will be in the future. Still needs finish sanding.

https://i.imgur.com/ldEF1gBl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/T2NptsLl.jpg

And some views of the binding on the back. I need to clean up the little glue smudges from the install. Not too worried about it nice thing with hide glue is that is cleans up well and doesn't leave a nasty scar or stain under finish.

https://i.imgur.com/u8gbjO7l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IDTB1kal.jpg

I'm feeling pretty great about this build so far. Not much left except for the neck carve/fingerboard/finish etc...

Alright first few coats of finish are going on. I'm pretty happy with the grain and look of this top even after a few coats. If you're into french polish/shellac the cut I'm using is a 1/4 cut Amber flakes with 1/8 cut super blonde flakes.

https://i.imgur.com/Tnn9uhCl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gjEcvfgl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ff2r82Wl.jpg

I'll buff things a bit glossier after I get a good layer applied.

The sides and back are finish sanded and just need finish as well. We're getting close to the finish line with this one. While the shellac cures I'll tackle the fingerboard/neck. The fingerboard on this one is some really nicely reclaimed brazillian that I'm at a bit of a crossroads on. I'll post an update with it relatively soon. All for now.

Really like the colours and textures in that Indian rosewood. It will make the French polishing all the more worthwhile.

Let's see another shot of that back set! :)

It's in the midst of getting finish right now. Once she's a little shinier I'll put up a few pics.

Took some time, but the finish has been applied and the rosewood really pops.

I really don't like uber sticky/shiny finishes so with my shellac/french polish I usually go for a mild gloss instead of super duper nitro levels of shiny. Tends to make the guitar feel a bit more organic too in my opinion.

matthewpatrick since you asked for another back shot here you go.

https://i.imgur.com/XNSAYPDl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n1AAw88l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hqaXC2Cl.jpg

Since rosewood bleeds like crazy with shellac I ended up having to do a good bit of separate finishing to keep the bindings looking clean with as little bleed over as possible from the rosewood. I'm happy with the contrasting colors though.

Fingerboard and neck are next. Not much longer until this one is making noise!

Looking good. I also like a matte finish from time to time. Plus you don’t have to spend so much time pore filling!

Beautiful set of Rosewood--really like the contrast with the binding!

True, I still do a sawdust/shellac pore fill regardless of the level of polish.

Thank you. I didn't expect the rosewood to turn out as dark as it did, pleasantly suprised!

Big update time. This one is done and on the books. Turned out looking a bit more deco looking than I had initially thought it would but I like it.

https://i.imgur.com/LD1uLsvl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/j5DxcWKl.jpg

The single pearl inlay is one I cut from a nuclei. I would've bought inlays but I wanted to learn to cut my own from round stock. I'm really happy with the look and luckily I still have several hundred nuclei left to work with so I'll definitely make more in the future.

https://i.imgur.com/fXC5gefl.jpg

The reason for the inlay is that the braz for the fingerboard was extremely old (a little over 100 years) and at some point in it's existence it had had a few holes drilled in it all in that single spot. Rather than waste the whole board I repaired the hole with some braz scraps and then inlaid the pearl dot to make it look nice.

And some more glamour shots. I really loved the grain in this piece of adi, definitely distinct and to me it gives it a nice organic look.

https://i.imgur.com/P7pw16Il.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CbZ80WUl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/piiS8W0l.jpg

Some lovely grain lines.

https://i.imgur.com/xJIstp6l.jpg

The rosette also turned out nice with the contrasting lines and variations.

https://i.imgur.com/yovo59rl.jpg

The saddle is a through saddle like old vintage guitars which I really like. However I wanted to try something a bit different with the lines and the way the saddle sits in the bridge. There's no hard edges and it's easy enough to lower the saddle like a traditional captured one. The bridge I also made from the same board of braz as the fingerboard.

https://i.imgur.com/QcO6LVTl.jpg

This was a really fun build and I'm really thrilled with the results. I'll post soundclips later as it's still breaking in right now. Plus you can't really get a feel for the sound until at least 5-7 days after being under tension. But so far it's highly responsive and has a wonderfully thick and woody quality to it.