Such amazing precision....love that koa

The level of detail and precision is just mind-blowing! Every guitar you build oozes class, and seeing these close up images highlight the skill behind the artistry. Beautiful, as always, Mark.

Thanks ukejon!

Thank you mikealpine, Some of the precision comes from learning tricks of the trade. Like using the reflection on the back of the chisel to set the angle is an easy way to get an accurate cut. It’s one of those wonderful ah ha moments.

Mark

Radial Purfling
 

After the Binding and border purfling is all dry it's time to ease out the Teflon spacer strip:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7813/...802ae25c_c.jpg

Then before trying to glue in all the radial purfling sticks I cut, I dry fit to confirm I cut them to the right thickness!

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7831/...eeddc2ac_c.jpg

When I first saw the teflon strip, I immediately thought of Paua shell, but no, you pull a swifty, and I think it's going to blow Paua shell out of the park!!

Thanks Zandit75. The plan is to have the bacon figured Padauk radial purfling carry a little bit of the red color all the way around the top and have the contrasting BRW binding show off the body profile. Thanks for commenting.

Mark

So when doing a radial purfling like that in pieces, is there any worry that the wood sections may dry out or expand differently than its neighbor so that the joint between them could either shrink and separate or swell and buckle? I know the glue is strong, but this picture just made me wonder what prevents that from happening. I guess even more minor shifting, could it affect the finish and cause minor finish issues?

I don't imagine it being any different to a rosette. With the many variations available with the designs, not even starting on the different and contrasting materials that can be used, using something like CA glue could stabilize the timber making it more resistant to expansion/contraction/cracking etc.

It occured to me as well and made me think of the possible utility of the liquid wood hardener that knife makers use to harden wooden scales.

Beautiful workmanship Mark.

Hi Tom, yes those are legitimate concerns. Wood expands and shrinks across the grain more than with the grain with changes of temp. and humidity. Here we are running a cross grain line all the way around the top. Fortunately, there is a lot we can do to control that. Expansion just isn’t an issue really because these are small strips being held in on three sides. There would be a lot of much bigger issues with the guitar if you got it wet enough to buckle the radial purfling. Shrinkage is something to consider though. Even cracks that can’t be seen can show up as sink lines in really nice thin finishes like French Polish so it’s best to be especially careful with that.
So what’s careful?
First off use only well seasoned and dry wood the isn’t particularly susceptable to temp and humidity changes.
Prebend the sticks to eliminate cracking them into the channel. It seems counter intuitive but, with a little heat the cross grain sticks prebend fairly easily.
You don’t see it on the picture above but, I don’t use butt joints when joining the sticks. I use a 45 degree scarf joint that runs top to bottom. This eliminates that joint from showing up and is particularly effective on light colored woods like Olivewood to hide that joint.
Certainly how wide the stick is and how tight the curve is a consideration. So some woods you just wouldn’t want to use on something like a French polished tight Venetian cutaway.

So that’s about 6 things I do to never worry about that issue.

Maybe that was more than you were asking for!
How ‘bout- No Problem? (I may live in N.H. but, I’m still shaking off my NJ)

Mark

I cleaned up the binding and purfling a bit. Here is how its coming out:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7885/...0dcf95f1_c.jpg

So far, so good. There will be more clean up but, the dark binding is accomplishing what I am going for.

Thanks for viewing!
Mark

Thanks for taking the time for the explanation Mark!

Fretboard
 

I worked on the fretboard today. It is Brazilian Rosewood with Padauk purfling and Brazilian Rosewood binding:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7806/...1cc4d316_c.jpg

The fretboard is set up for a 25" string scale and now has a 16" radius:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7835/...d6b19d52_c.jpg

We chose BRW because we wanted a little bit of the red that sometimes with it. Plus, it is just a gorgeous wood:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7840/...42962c4d_c.jpg


Thanks for following along!

Mark

Lots of very rich brown tones in that wood. Yummy.

Best,
Jayne

Thanks Jayne, that wood really is exceptional. The finish will be done in a few weeks and we’ll really see how much more it comes to life!

Thanks again,
Mark