Moving right along, the next thing I did was to measure the dimensions of the binding/purfling channels on the body and also finally pull my bent rosewood binding strips out of the Fox bender where they sat for nearly 3 weeks. I don't have pics of this but suffice it to say that the binding strips fit perfectly in the depth of the channels. The purfling will be the tricky part though. I have a variety of different widths and can't keep all the purfling strips I have laying around straight. I also need some more so I have a bunch in the shopping cart at lmii.com and just wanted to check before buying them.
Finally, I moved on to selecting a veneer to use for the headstock. Since my rosette and binding are rosewood I'm also going with rosewood for the headplate and the fingerboard. No fingerboard yet but here are the leading contenders for the headstock:
These all come from a box of scrap pieces which are comprised of some split backs and orphaned sides. As you can see, one of the choices is from the same board that I got my rosette. This one is my favorite, though. On the back is written "41" which I have no idea the significance of.
As you can see, it's quite dark but the lighting doesn't do it justice. In this one it almost looks like ebony but believe me, it's a dark piece of rosewood with nice contrast and an almost purplish color. I may take more pictures under natural light, but FWIW I matched it up with the binding and my end wedge and they all match pretty well.