Wonderful. Its a shame shipping is such a cash bummer from me to you.
Thats great Martin helped you out. When I did my Parlor I had no Luthier tools, books or info. Man is my head full since then. No wonder the folks that have been at it for 10-20 years tend to mumble a lot
. If you dig up the Brazilian Parlor Project post I have all of those detailed photo's (first part is messed up with a slide show thing I have not figured out how to deal with) and whether it worked or not. Lots of Homemade solutions to the restoration process and when my ideas were stupid.
I tried my first bend on Ebony Binding. I'll use the sticks for fill and inlay. I gotta say it was a "After the Prom" feeling when I got the first Mahogany Binding to bend! I came out of the basement yapping about it. The kids looked at me like I was nuts.
The first one will be more expensive to fix than the value. Just like fishing. You buy a boat and $500 in tackle so you don't have to pay for fish meat. Even more nuts, we just say hello and let the fish go.
Get hooked on restoration. Beats buying a Harley and terrorizing Bingo Halls.