Hatcher's Studio 2021

[Mark Hatcher]

I just got this shipment of fretboards, bridges, headstock overlays, backstraps, binding, and tuner buttons!



I can do a lot with a 30 inch long, 35lb half log of Snakewood!

[Archaic Guitars]

Not to be too nosey, but does switching to all hand tools also include sawing and milling that snakewood by hand as well?

I particularly endorse the q-tip dispenser in the background!

[Lonzo]

..cool! Not only the snakewood log, this also nicely shows your new bench and how you set it up at a distance and with the tool board... hope your horror story with the Tree back/guitar has not happened yet and now will not ever happen ;o)
Looks great and the new seat will fit in very well, both practically and optically.
Enjoy !

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Archaic Guitars

Not to be too nosey, but does switching to all hand tools also include sawing and milling that snakewood by hand as well?

I particularly endorse the q-tip dispenser in the background!

I won't be doing much sawing and milling of Snakewood quite yet. I don't have the saws to handle it yet. I've been studying ways to resaw by hand. My tools to buy and learn to use list includes a Blackburn Roubo frame saw kit. I'll start with cedar and some domestic hardwoods and work my way up to the harder and more expensive woods from there. In the meantime I'll keep doing it the old fashioned way using my bandsaw to cut the blanks and go with hand tools from there.

I also know someone from our local makerspace that is an expert with Japanese saws. He has built large structures with these and understands the methods and saws for working timber. After we get through this pandemic I hope to spend some time with him to get a feel for what I can do using the larger Japanese tools.

I built three little dispensers into that shelf: the Q-tip dispenser, one for pins and one for tooth picks. You've got to keep those critical high tech little hand tools in easy reach!

Originally Posted by Lonzo

..cool! Not only the Snakewood log, this also nicely shows your new bench and how you set it up at a distance and with the tool board... hope your horror story with the Tree back/guitar has not happened yet and now will not ever happen ;o)
Looks great and the new seat will fit in very well, both practically and optically.
Enjoy !

Thanks Lonzo, no accidents yet luckily, I'm pretty good at predicting the worst. I still have a way to go getting the tools I want and researching what is available and who is making/selling them.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

I got the swing away stool arm and hardware last night and now have it all set up. It works wonderfully so please pardon me for a minute while I obsess:



Here the Swing Away is Swung Away:



OK back to work!



Thanks for viewing!
Mark

[Nemoman]

Looks beautiful, Mark--what a sweet set-up!

[BrianM99]

That's a mighty neat and clean workshop. Not a bad looking Woodsman either.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Looks beautiful, Mark--what a sweet set-up!

Thanks Nemoman!

Originally Posted by BrianM99

That's a mighty neat and clean workshop. Not a bad looking Woodsman either.

I got that Woodsman strung up today. The bridge was glued on yesterday so it was ready to go this morning. That starts with drilling the bridge pin holes on through the top of the guitar. The holes were already started so they guide the drill bit the rest of the way through:



You also may notice the I am not drilling the holes straight down through the top but am coming at it from a bit of an angle. I ramp the back of my bridges and the bridge pins heads will sit flat to that surface.

I also tilt the saddle back at an angle for several reasons. One is this relieves some of the forward pressure from strings wanting to pushing the saddle from behind. That forward pressure can cause a bridge to crack out after time.
The second reason is the saddle is set at an angle is to help keep the guitar from loosing intonation when the saddle is raised or lowered. The higher the saddle the further back the string break point goes which helps offset the addition stretch on the strings when fretted from the greater height.

Now neither of thee things are really vintage ideas but they are subtle changes and,well, better is better.

I use my egg beater hand drill for this purpose now. It is remarkable how much easier it is to hold the angle correctly with this than a heavy powered drill. The egg beater is perfectly balanced and the handle is in line with drill bit. A power drill is faster while the egg beater is slower and more accurate. I'll take accurate over faster.

Here are a couple initial pics of the guitar:

[Nemoman]

That looks fantastic, Mark--the french polish finish really sets it off beautifully!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

That looks fantastic, Mark--the french polish finish really sets it off beautifully!

Thanks Nemoman, I like the look of French polish too. It really keeps your attention on the actual wood and the grain pops with a sense of depth.

Thanks for commenting!
Mark

[TomB'sox]

I have one French polished guitar and I have to say, it is extremely responsive. Of course it had a very good builder behind it (David Wren), but it is a sweet guitar!

This Woodsman looks phenomenal and I feel like I can almost hear it already!

[cigarfan]

The current Woodsman looks great Mark. I too love the way French polish yields a natural wood look and pops the grain.

Wish I was there to join you for a Padron.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

I have one French polished guitar and I have to say, it is extremely responsive. Of course it had a very good builder behind it (David Wren), but it is a sweet guitar!

This Woodsman looks phenomenal and I feel like I can almost hear it already!

Thanks Tom, I hope to get a sound clip made before this guitar ships. I agree French polish really lets the response and tone shine! This is a responsive one too, partly owing to it’s sub 4lb overall weight.

Originally Posted by cigarfan

The current Woodsman looks great Mark. I too love the way French polish yields a natural wood look and pops the grain.

Wish I was there to join you for a Padron.

Thanks cigarfan! That would be great. It seems Padrons have been in shorter supply lately. Apparently Honduras has been socked pretty heavily by hurricanes recently on top of everything else that is already going on.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

The weekend is here so it's time to work on the workshop. This week I started getting in my new upgraded layout tools. I'm building modular racks to hold tools to the 4' by 8' slatboard wall behind the workbench. The advantage of the slat board is I can move the rack units around and I can arrange the tools right to the slatboard until I have them organized in a way that works best with my workflow before committing them to a custom rack.

I have four racks done so far and two to go:



Top left is saws and drills and the shelf rack below is smalls including hex nibs and handles. The top middle is planes and scrapers. Below that is the handled tools rack which is mostly chisels.

I now have the layout tools top right on the slatboard until their positions settle in. Below that will be another shelf rack with to-be determined tools.

I am very pleased with how this is working so far and I am happy to see that using hand tools I can reach almost everything I need to make a guitar while standing at my bench.

[cigarfan]

Schweeet !!!