Binding

While I was waiting for the finish to cure on my dreadnought, I had time to get to the binding on my weird classical. I routed the ledges for the binding and purfling, on the back and the top. I then proceeded to bend the ebony strips for the bindings. I had only 5 strips of ebony; the first two I bent went fine, with no cracking. But the last three just wouldn't bend without cracking, so I had to settle for gluing on only the binding and purflings for the top. I ordered a few more ebony binding strips for the back from LMI, and will have to wait to do the back until those arrive.

I love the rich look of wood bindings and purflings, but I don't much like working with them! Ebony is so unpredictable in the bending, and wood purflings tend to swell up quickly as you apply the glue, so fitting them in is not always a piece of cake....

 

Well, I got the additional ebony binding from LMI....

To the left is the side ebony binding before I inserted the side purfling.

When I routed the channel for the side binding, I just routed for the depth of the binding. But I still needed to insert a green purfling strip at the bottom of the ebony binding ---- that's where the side purfling cutter below (available from Luthiers Mercantile) came in. It is a cutter to fit the Dremel, with 5 brass bearing sleeves. With all the sleeves, it's set for a cutting depth of .050" and a channel width of .050 ". Deeper cuts in .012 " increments are possible by removing one or more of the brass sleeves. I adjusted the cutter blade (by raising/lowering the router base) so that it cut the slot right at the bottom of the ebony binding. Then I just inserted the green purfling into that slot, using superglue.

 

 

Below are several views of the bindings and purflings.

 
   
   

 Go to :

  1. Planning & Mold
  2. Joining the Top & Making the Rosette
  3. Bracing the Top
  4. The Back
  5. The Sides
  6. The Soundbox
  7. The Neck
  8. Binding
  9. Shaping the Neck
  10. The Bridge
  11. The Finishing
  12. It's Finished!!!

(last updated 9/7/98)

 

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