[Monsoon1]

Originally Posted by Erithon

Mark has put many hours into realizing this technical soundport design. He began by sanding the area nearly down to the wood. Next he laid in one cross-grained .020” black laminate inside to shore up the side before cutting the holes. After cutting the holes he added one Maple layer and two more black layers to create a floor and buttress the side strength. Finally he inserted the purfling and the Ebony binding, and glued and clamped it all up:


After the glue dried Mark cut through the three laminate layers and smoothed them up to the binding (the side was wiped with Naptha for these photos):




This is some truly fine woodcraft by Mark: the Maple interior laminate enhances the perception of depth against the Ebony binding; the tight curves of that purfling are cleanly executed; and instead of wrapping a strip around the inside of the ports, each binding is an entire piece of hollowed-out Ebony. What an elegant choice! Not only is there no join seam, but the Ebony's grain also runs parallel to that of the Cocobolo's. Subtle and creative.

Next Mark will bevel the soundport bindings so they have a round edge that leads the eye inward. Once that's done, we'll move on from the soundport to the next stages: stripping the rest of the finish from the sides, voicing the top, and then closing up the box for refinishing.

Brilliant.