The Last Great Train Robbery

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by rule18

Wow Mark, that's gonna be one heck of a Woodsman (and my Greta's top will have a brother LOL).

Thanks rule18. The finish will be wrapping up pretty soon!

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Here are the top halves:



From here I plane and level the surfaces to be glued on each half and glue it up:



Once dried I cut out a rough profile of the top and plane the surfaces.



Planing the top tells me if there is any run out (none) any hard or soft areas (none). I also have more exacting control of a consistent thickness than can be gotten from a sander.

Here is a picture of the planed top blank set back into the sanded part of the top that I cut away:



Notice how shiny it is and how the grain stands out so much more? That is because the pores in the sanded top are stuffed up with sawdust and fibers from the sanding as opposed to the clean cut of a plane.

But it's about a lot more than looks. Glue sticks a lot better to a planed surface than it does to a sanded surface. We see a lot of chatter about which is the best glue to use but the real question should be how was the wood surface prepared. Was it sanded (most common), scraped (better), or was it planed (best)? This makes a lot more difference than whether it was Fish Glue, hot Hide Glue or Titebond as far as adhesion goes.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

I am using a set of curly Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides:











I think the Redwood and BRW are a great pairing both for looks and for tone:



m

[BradHall]

The difference between sanded and planed is remarkable. I’m ready to thickness my next build and will use a plane this time. Thanks for showing us your process. Absolutely stunning woods you are using.

[Treenewt]

I second Brad's comment above...the wood selection is incredible on this build, Mark.

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

If you are going for 13s you should look up the Remington House

Thanks for that suggestion. Very interesting reading.

Lately, I've been looking into the merits of 13-fret guitars for ergonomic reasons.

Tommy

[Larrison]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Wow- That's a great shot of a couple of amazing pieces of wood.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by BradHall

The difference between sanded and planed is remarkable. I’m ready to thickness my next build and will use a plane this time. Thanks for showing us your process. Absolutely stunning woods you are using.

Thanks Brad and you’re welcome

Originally Posted by Treenewt

I second Brad's comment above...the wood selection is incredible on this build, Mark.

Thanks Treenewt!

Originally Posted by tommieboy

Thanks for that suggestion. Very interesting reading.

Lately, I've been looking into the merits of 13-fret guitars for ergonomic reasons.

Tommy

You are welcome Tommy, My apologies, I should have said the Winchester House, I guess you figured it out.
I’ve had several commissions for 13 fret guitars. I find changing scale lengths is a good way to avoid having to redesign your bracing.

Originally Posted by Larrison

Wow- That's a great shot of a couple of amazing pieces of wood.

Thanks Larrison!

[Mark Hatcher]

I will be using 450 million year old Iberville Shale for the rosette:



I considered using green Turquoise because the color would go well and it can look like the patina on old brass.



I get the Iberville Shale rocks from certain beaches on Lake Champlain:



You can see New York's Adirondack mountains across the lake. This is the only place you can get Adirondack Spruce from, like the spruce I am going to use for the ladder braces on this guitar's back.
The raw rocks from this beach look like this:



The rocks are from an old sea bed that was brought to the surface as Vermont crashed into New York. The white is calcite from the ancient animal sea life and the black is just the other remnants on the sea bottom.

The real reason I am going with Iberville Shale is because it looks like smoke, like you might see coming out of a dark tunnel after an explosion?

m

[Mark Hatcher]

Here I'm cutting out the sound hole:



You know what they say, "Where there is smoke there is fire"











Mark

[Treenewt]

Those two elements, the Shale and the choice of wood for the logo….super classy and seriously cool!

[SColumbusSt]

That is going to be a beautiful guitar!

Mark, how do you secure the wood when you are planing it and what plane do you use? I don't build enough to justify a drum sander and hate the mess, wrestling match and noise my drill press safety planer makes. I have a Stanley 5 1/2 and have tried the various methods I've found online to secure the wood when planing it but have not had success.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

Those two elements, the Shale and the choice of wood for the logo….super classy and seriously cool!

Thanks Treenewt! We'll see more of that logo wood on this guitar.

Originally Posted by SColumbusSt

That is going to be a beautiful guitar!

Mark, how do you secure the wood when you are planing it and what plane do you use? I don't build enough to justify a drum sander and hate the mess, wrestling match and noise my drill press safety planer makes. I have a Stanley 5 1/2 and have tried the various methods I've found online to secure the wood when planing it but have not had success.

Thanks SColumbusSt. I mostly use a Lie-Nielsen #164 low angle Smoothing Plane.
I secure the wood with a holdfast:



I also set a bench dog at the edge of the upper bout to keep the wood from turning.

I don't pull much wood with each stroke. I set up for between .002" and .003" thick curls.

M

[SColumbusSt]

Thanks Mark!

[Mark Hatcher]

A little over two years ago I found this wonderful Cocobolo board at one of my favorite suppliers:



The board was 6ft+ and 4 quarters thick. I had to cut it in half to fit into the Mini Cooper I was driving back then. It had great color and the uncommon grain patterns called cloud figure.



My first thought looking at this board was it looks like it is on fire! This was the original inspiration for the guitar I am making today. I was aware the 100 year mark was coming on the Great Train Robbery. That is when I started planing this guitar.

So far we have the logo chip. Here I am prepping a section of the board to make the binding:



Here it is:



This picture I've shown a couple times already?:



That's the fretboard blank. This is a picture right after it was cut and it has reddened up some since.

There will be other opportunities for this wood as I go like the end graft, heel cap, headstock overlay, maybe a center laminate up the neck, etc.

The bridge will be BRW because since the back and sides are BRW I can easily go with the BRW bridge. Given the choice of BRW and Cocobolo I'll pretty much always pick BRW.

Thanks for following and for the comments and question along the way!
Mark