Thanks Paul I’m glad you are enjoying the thread! I enjoy sharing my work.

Mark

Mark - I really enjoyed the vignette about measuring your shavings and adjusting with the brass hammer. This could become a great magazine article (in all of your spare time :D).

Rick

Thanks, Mark. This is great! Lie-Nielsen came to the local lumberyard in autumn 2019 to display tools and demonstrate/teach. Very nice people every bit as excellent as the tools. Love your technique of measuring the shavings for blade adjustment.

I have never even thought of adjusting a modern plane with a hammer, and always thought it was a technique for Krenov style planes, but this makes total sense! The lateral adjustment on most planes just aren’t sensitive enough for dialing into 0.001” or differences. Thanks, Mark, for sharing glimpses into your knowledge and skill on these subjects!

Now I’m gonna go spend some time with my #4, a mallet, and some calipers.

'No sawdust, no dust mask, no dust collector, no ear protection, no noise just the sound of the wood doing my bidding!'

This is a great quote, I'm really enjoying following this thread. I'm an amateur/hobby luthier and try to use hand tools whenever I can. I find them more relaxing and enjoyable to use, safer and far more agreeable with my neighbours! I just wish I could produce guitars with a fraction of the quality of yours. Inspirational stuff.

Thanks Rick, measuring the shavings is a great way to get accurate control. We don’t have that option with powered machinery that turn everything into dust.

I’m writing an article for the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers’ annual Journal magazine. I’m referring back to the material I’ve previously written here in AGF which makes it pretty easy.

That is my impression of the folks at Lie-Nielsen too. In healthier times they go on tour to show and teach about woodworking and don’t charge entrance fees. What I particularly like is they invite other smaller toolmakers to show also.

Great! I’m glad you found some inspiration in that!

Mark, as always another interesting thread, I like how you stated you are not on some crusade of hand tools vs power tools, just looking at another way to make a better product.

For me it's always been a combination of hand and power depending on the task at hand. I think my Jet drum sander might be the 2nd or 3rd coolest thing I've bought in the past few years or so, my digital camera being #1(one of the greatest things ever) and maybe #2 MB 560 SEC.

As a finish carpenter I was always surprised on how many guys didn't have a block plane, didn't see how anyone could do quality work without one no matter what power tools you had use of.

As great as hand tools are for somethings I have yet to see one of the most useful power tools non power equivalent a vacuum cleaner. A vac not for dust control but for just general clean up. Some may not think of it as a tool but spend a day on just about any type of job without one and see how it goes.

Will look forward to more posts on this journey.

Bruce,

Thanks Mark. Your posts and pics are so informative. Love the top comparison of sanded to planed. Phenomenal difference! Sure love watching this thread.

Mark

Couple of questions about your tooling...

I agree with you about the smoothing plane. I have several so I can keep them set to take different cuts. My favorite is a brass #3 Lie-Nielsen. The sound of it being sharp and slicing the thinnest layer is just magic.

I haven’t heard you talk about card scrappers and I am learning about using them. Do you use scrappers? How do you use them? While I don’t build guitars I am trying to get to the point where I don’t use sandpaper when I do my woodworking.

Thanks for all your insights.

Jack

This is an inspiring thread!
 

I am so happy that you are doing this, Mark. As a rabid environmentalist, I've always found the power tool aspect of "hand-built" guitars to be unfortunate, but didn't see any way around it. This gives me hope. And, I must say, it makes me even prouder to be the owner of a Hatcher guitar!

All the best,

Stan

Thanks for following along and for your comments. I agree with about the general clean up importance. A messy disorganized shop to me is depressing, unhealthy, and just a time and energy suck.

One thing I do that works well for me is to eliminate anything in the shop that is not directly involved or directly supportive of me making guitars. So my specialty bicycle tools are back at the house in the garage etc.

I agree with the digital camera as being an important tool. In fact it is the one tool in my shop that keeps all the other tools busy! Now if I were to go power free on that tool I guess a pencil and a piece of paper could replace the camera but, I'd still need to use a camera to get it up on the internet where my sales are made.

Thanks cigarfan!

Jack I do use scrapers. Like the planes they fall into different families. I use scraper planes, card scrapers and specialty scrapers. Scrapers go way back and are the original sandpaper. In the grand scheme of things in guitar making I think the best finish for prepping wood is a planed surface, a close second is scraped and sanded as a last resort.

In this thread I am trying to highlight contemporary hand tools so this is a good time to mention a card scraper developed by Alan Carruth and sold by Stewmac. It is 1/8" thick and is shaped on a grinding wheel. It works a dream! It gets into places none of my planes do and is very controllable. I'll try to capture it in action somewhere during this thread.

Thanks Stan, I can't say I don't have a power meter on my shop (not yet) but I will say it came as a revelation to me when I figured out that hand tools didn't stop evolving when electricity came out!

Guitar Progress Pictures
 

Here are a couple progress shots of the Bloodwood back and Black MOP/Black Ebony inlay I'm working on:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a807a83b_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...da08f8c8_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...600b2558_b.jpg

Bloodwood has an amazing amount of chatoyance. Using the smoothing plane is the best way to prep the top for finish because it wonderfully shows that shine.

The Black Ebony Art Deco back inlay is centered with black mother-of-pearl. I like that at one angle it looks like the Black Ebony and then suddenly flashes to life with a change of the light.

Wow - that's with no finish or even solvent on top? Who is your supplier for bloodwood?

Mark - how are you cutting your inlay recesses by hand and flattening their floors?

Also - from the wood database:

Workability: Bloodwood is extremely dense, and has a pronounced blunting effect on cutters. The wood tends to be brittle and can splinter easily while being worked. Those persistent enough to bear with the difficulties of working with Bloodwood to the finishing stage are rewarded with an exceptional and lustrous red surface.

Mark -Do you agree with this? The wood looks spectacular

best,

Rick

I large Bloodwood board years ago from Willard Brothers in Trenton NJ and re-sawed a number of back and side sets.

There is one quick swipe of shellac on there. Sorry, I try to always name what I am showing.

I cut the inlays with a jewelry saw. I routed the pocket with my Foredom. That Bloodwood is just too hard and splintery for me to attempt cutting the pocket and cleaning the floor with my little router plane, at least for now. I'm working on that skill. I currently am cutting and cleaning wider rosette rings by hand but those are in softwoods. I'm working on it and hope to get to the point that I'll take on doing pockets in hardwoods.

100% I'd only add that it taps like a top tier tonewood.

I’m excited to see the Allen Carruth scraper in action. I’ve put it on my tool list a few different times, but have never purchased it after reading reviews that it’s hard to get a burr on it without a grinding wheel, which I do not have. Do you have any ideas of how to keep it performing with just sharpening stones and a burnished?

Also, I noticed your smoothing plane is a low angle (and I presume bevel up), are you using a standard 25 degree bevel or something steeper?

I’m looking forward to seeing what direction this thread goes in once you start building the neck!

Tim, Stewmac has a video by Alan Carruth with the scraper on their website. Alan shows how to sharpen without a grinder. Sharpening this way is particularly good for softwoods, like tops etc.

Yes, it is a bevel up smoothing plane. I started with a 25 degree bevel and I have a 5 degree micro bevel and the blade itself sit in the plane at 12 degrees. Which all adds up to a 42 degree cutting angle.
I'm getting another blade which I'll start out with a 35 degree angle and end with a 52 degree cut. This will do a little better on highly figured softwoods like curly Redwood or bear claw Spruce.
It's easy to switch up blades on low angle planes

Progress Pics
 

Here are a couple of progress pictures. I used Black Ebony for the logo chip and back graft, The "H" inlay is black mother of pearl

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ccf995d0_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dcc3fa88_c.jpg

The sides are bent and joined and the kerfing is in also:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6d4db4e1_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8d939131_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8ba01090_c.jpg

Thanks for following!
Mark

Those are some amazingly smooth lines and curves for hand-cut and hand routed inlay - your technique for accomplishing such tight tolerances on large inlays would be great to see!

Thanks tadol, I'm pretty old school with inlay cutting although the new titanium fret/jewelry saw works better than the old steel one I have:

https://live.staticflickr.com/5699/2...7a1725aa_c.jpg

I also have a coffee mug full of needle files on clean-up duty.

When I can do the inlay on the background piece before I glue it to the guitar, for instance, rosette donuts or arm bevel bananas.

Hmm, that's not very clear.

When I have a laminate that I use for a rosette or the laminate that goes on an arm bevel I don't really do inlay, I do marquetry. I'll take some pics of that
when I get to the arm bevel on this guitar.

Whoaaaa....
 

That black M O P may be the most beautiful crustacean bit I have ever seen!

The whole thing is another beauty!!!

Salud

Paul

Thanks Paul, I 'm a big fan of black MOP. It's has this great dark gun metal look.

Thanks for commenting!
Mark

Rosette
 

Here I am laying up the rosette. I'm doing a Black Ebony ring with Bloodwood marquetry and black MOP inlay.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c6112008_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8e6fa998_c.jpg

The purfling is black wood, Maple and thicker Bloodwood:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1f731da3_c.jpg
Top and back:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...24106804_c.jpg

Thanks for viewing!
Mark

Gorgeous - I love the look of the black MOP and the color of the bloodwood is so rich. Yummm.

Best,
Jayne

Thanks Jayne,

Bloodwood just glows. I has great depth in its color. Bloodwood also sounds great too!

Mark

Hand Powered Table Saw
 

Here are the first round of top braces on the go bar deck. As many of you may have read I do a number of sash joints on the top and back brace of my guitars. These are tight lightweight joints with a lot of precision cuts and miters.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fbd39000_c.jpg

One hand powered tool that I have found immensely helpful for this type of precision cut is the Bridge City Jointmaker Pro. It is based around a long Japanese blade mounted under a sliding table that you clamp your piece to. You then slide the table on it's lateral bearings across the blade.

You have several controls for the blades:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a5110273_c.jpg

When you loosen the top knob you can angle the blade 45 degrees in either direction. The crank below sets how high the blade sits which determines the depth of the cut.
You can measure that but simple pushing a rule out to the highest point of the blade:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ab22cf5e_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8683f928_c.jpg

So this is a hand powered table saw. What is the advantage of that?

The first advantage is accuracy. With the precision fence you can easily set the stops to the thousandths of an inch:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...06e8aff1_c.jpg

You are making a vibration free cut off on a stationary blade so the cut surface is a finished surface with no tear out. There are a number of blades available with different teeth per inch and blade thicknesses, including a gauged blade for doing fret slots.

The second advantage is you are cutting without heat. So when you are slicing a .040" piece of your prime Ironwood burl for purfling it won't get hot and crack on you. If you are cutting fret slots you are not making the slot edges brittle buy cooking the wood with a hot blade.

Third advantage is there is only the noise of the fine gauge saw cutting wood no dust collector needed. What little saw dust there is basically just falls on the catch below.

Fourth advantage is it won't throw your work at you or jerk it around and cut your fingers off.

I am constantly finding new applications for the hand tool and loving the improvements along the way.

Wow! A serious piece of kit, as they say down under!

Outstanding! :)

Mark - the Jointmaker pro looks like an amazing device! But this is a terrible thread, as TAS may be replacing my GAS. I love the concept of a hand powered table saw. Thanks for introducing me to this.

Rick

I did a search for Jointmaker Pro on eBay and the only results were for cigarette rolling machines!:roll:

I am just blown away by the beauty of your work,I only wish I had the skill so I could convince myself that I play good enough to do justice to one of those beauties. I will enjoy following this build.