Friday, February 20, 2009

Binding the Bodies

The bodies are bound. Let me show you what that entails.



A bit of patience is required as I do everything the hard way.

The purfling cutter is again used to score for the rebate.To keep the purfling cutter blade sharp it is honed repeatedly throughout the scoring process. I use polishing compound on window glass. This is also how I keep my chisels razor sharp. What am I talking about? Razors aren't that sharp.The waste is carefully pared away in specific stages. At all times the chisel is never allowed to face good wood. First I shave off the corner.Then I create a new rebate with the chisel, just within the scored lines. This is carved deeper and wider until a paper thin layer is left against each scored edge. This is carefully pared away with the chisel starting in the scored line.I use a little trick to carve the point on the cutaway. Prior to carving the rebate and several times during, I saturate the fibers with superglue. Just a drop or two will soak in right at the tip and you will never loose any cross grain. But you still have to be careful.You get into a rhythm with the carving of the rebate. It is pretty intense work, since you can't make any mistakes, but it is very satisfying.The body bindings are made just like my veneer, ripped on the table saw with a 1 1/4" sawmill blade and a guide fence.Then thicknessed in the sander. I make the bindings slightly thicker than my standard 3/32" veneer so there is a bit more left to work with in final contouring.Sawn into strips that will fit just proud of the rebate, they are allowed to soak in water for a couple of days. This set up with the bottom of a torn dust collector bag works well.The wet strips are run quickly over the hot pipe and when flexible they are tacked down to a tracing of the actual rebate. As they cool and dry the brads are added and the curves are faired with hand pressure.The whole board is then propped up in front of the wood stove to bake for 2 or 3 days.The bindings are an almost perfect fit when they come off the board. Any small flat spots are trued up on the hot pipe and the cutaway is glued in first. Each successive piece overlaps the previous one. A shaped caul faced with sandpaper is used to true up minor discrepancies that show up when the actual binding is offered up to the rebate. Working around the body each piece is laminated in place. Stategicly located clamps allow for continuous clamping pressure all around the curved edge. The glue will scrape very easily off the polished edge of the body, so I don't worry if it drips all over. With this set up I have plenty of time and can saturate both the binding and the rebate with glue.By shaving the first strips back at a very shallow angle a perfect scarf joint is formed. Once pared back and rasped flush the seam is very difficult to locate. This binding is on for good.


Lots of work for one little piece of wood, no? I think it's worth it.

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