A McKnight Skinny Slope Dreadnaught for cigarfan

[Ukulele_Eddie]

Dang, Dennis. You mean business this year with yet another fantastic build. I love that sapelle!

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

Mucho Kudos to Dennis for rendering the rosette in PhotoShop. No pressure on us to try and mimic his artwork though ... YIKES!!! All kidding aside, this should be a very fun project to look forward to.

Hey Tim, you are correct sir, Dennis has impressive skills in Photoshop. In fact--sorry about this Dennis--he can do that rendering in several different colors!
And then you will have several different targets to hit. Or at least you can say, "Well, this bit of your rosette is like the 3rd drawing, this section is like the first..." And so on.

Kudos to both, it will be a wonderful guitar. Love that Sapele! (Just like Eddie said.)

Steve

[cigarfan]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Appreciate you following along. If I know Mary, the pictures will start flowing. This is going to be fun.

So the process of building the rosette gets started with the tools of the trade and, of course, a copy of the photoshop challenge I prepared for Tim.



So much care with each piece.







A short video of the careful sanding of each piece to fit.



And the last piece slides in.



Then to remove all the working materials.



And finally after a pass through the sander.



When I received the photo above I had to slip it into my photoshop file to see how it looks. Tim did an awesome job!



The inlay work will be done tomorrow.

[Mbroady]

I can stare at that rosette all day and half way through next week. Truly a work of art.

[ukejon]

Another absolute beauty...love the wood selection

[TomB'sox]

I would say Mr. McKNight nailed it Dennis!

[Vaillant75]

A nice declination of your already sublime Kostal rosette! Will follow this build with great interest.

Cheers,
Tom

[Nemoman]

Nicely executed, Tim!

[Rodger]

You have exquisite taste, Dennis!!

Can't wait to check this one out at lucky McJam 13!

[cigarfan]

Before I launch on the rosette progress today I want to mention an occurance today, I really can't call a setback but something that luthier and customer inevitably have to deal with from time to time. Tim was in touch this morning with a dilemma. The Sapele back we had agreed to was just short of wide enough for an SSD. But, by the way, he had 5 more Sapele backs to offer. Since I had spent some glorious aromatic time in Tim's wood room, I remember tapping those sample backs so when he said I have 5 other choices, 2 similar in figure, and all tapping nearly the same (no standouts) the choice would be fairly straight forward. These are the 2 finalists with my original set in the center. We chose the one on the left.



And the work on the rosette continues. Here is a short video of the router work to cut the inner and outer ring on the mosaic.

And some photos showing that same process.









With the channel routed in the top, time to glue in the mosaic.







And then a weight to keep it in place while the glue dries.

[cigarfan]

Creation of an endgraft to match the rosette.



And while the rosette is drying, the back is routed for the center strip of abalone. Then the abalone is glued in.





Not bad for a days work. Whew! Tim and Mary have got to be tired.

[SJ VanSandt]

Love it, Dennis! This is going to be so gorgeous.

[cigarfan]

When you commission a McKnight you can count on complete documentation of the process. We all love pics and each step is an opportunity for learning something new. I hope you all are ready for the onslaught.

Tim tells me today's goals include bending the sides, brace the back and complete the rosette. Lofty goals but something tells me this hard working man is going to get there.

Profiling the sides. Sapele outside and Honduran Mahogany inside.





Thicknessing the sides.





Marking the waist before bending.



A little spritz before bending. You have to soften them up a little bit.



Preparing the sandwich.



Line up in the bender.



And a short video showing the process of slowly getting the sides in the mold.

[cigarfan]

The rosette moves into the next phase ... addition of the paua rings.

Just a reminder of where we left it.



Measure twice (or five times), cut once!





Bend the maple purfling.





Materials are ready!





Dry fit the pieces.

[cigarfan]

A short video of the final cut.

Then comes the sticky stuff.



A short video of the glue clean-up.

Shave the high edges.



And voila! She is a beaut!



And little protective material and she goes back under the weight to dry overnight.