270710

Tuesday the 27th of July 2010

 

well here’s the reason for our absence and the disorganised state of the diary section of the site.. our son was born, healthy etc etc, on Saturday night.. a few days late but that’s to be expected with my projects at the moment  The last few weeks have been particularly hard on my lovely wife and I’ve been called away to help.. I hope, however, to be back at least part-time in the next week.. until then I’ll grab a few hours completing the website while everyone else catches up on sleep..  

 

other, well laid, plans have been scuppered by the igors back injury, he has a load of work that would not require any supervision but it looks as if he’s off for at least a few more weeks.. wish him well everyone for he is indispensible!!!

 

now, back to the diary..

 

some confused weather we’ve been having, very very hot and then as soon as I purchase an air-conditioning unit it gets wet and miserable.. sods law rules!

now, a job I’ve been dreading for a while now.. 

natural timber binding is notoriously difficult to get right

lots of bending and glue involved.. not to mention splitting and splinters!

rewind.. the first attempt is not good enough..

now.. at this point igor is happily working on his baritone guitar.. a few minutes later his back is done in and we’re screwed!

the bending iron is very useful here.. though it does take a chunk out of my elbow at one point, it gets bloody hot!

on the tops of the twins this is the difficult section..maple/ebony/maple/rosewood/maple/wenge/flamed maple

at least igors paf doublecut baritone is starting to look the part.. pretty much ready for carving..

the wenge topped twin is looking good..

and a start is made on her sisters top..

eventually the excess binding is carefully planed away..

they’re looking great!

now, in order to allow for the all-access neck carving we’re going to play around with the binding on the back..

like so..

still allows for the carving and adds a certain sexiness to the proceedings!

and binding begins… again..

simpler bands on the back.. the rosewood is missed out of the mix..

I use an old shell casing to help bend the tighter curves here.. got to watch out though as that heats up as well!!

eventually the other twin is also done and the excess removed..

I like, I like a lot!

now, a break from binding is much needed, as is a wenge centered multi-laminate neck..

the mahogany is cut to length with a jacksaw..

and then spilt down the middle with the bandsaw

finally all the surfaces to be glued are planed flat by hand..

..and then glued.. we’ll leave it under full clamping pressure for at least a day when using titebond..

next up this neck for Mike, I messed up first time around and one of the sections is not even..

so it’s into the machine shop

for a spot of re-engineering!

the outer sections are planed, and equalised, by hand..

then the maple veneers are cut to size, roughly..

then this too gets a healthy coat of glue and a load of clamps!

igor comes in for a day.. and just gets hurt all over again.. he needs time to heal!

the new neck blank is planed up

as is Mikes through neck

and then it is back to the binding.,. I love the look of this wenge headstock veneer!

after routing the central circle is cut out by hand with a sharp gouge..

the muse descendant is sanded and ready for staining..

while it takes me several goes to get this small section of binding looking right..

this looks great though.. nice and clean even with all those controls!

ahh..

..oh.. one more to go!

more bending..

and finally we’re there.. they obviously still need inlays but this pair of guitars are very nearly complete!  And I feel as if my binding skill has reached a new level so a bonus all round!

 

We’ll be back as soon as possible.. keep an eye on our twitpic and twitter feeds for news!

All my best, 

Ben

crimson guitars HQ

{sfh}redefining|400|110|5|5|0.3|0|0|0|1|0|14|0|1{/sfh}