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