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Re: Peter's comments, I agree the book is quite user friendly (got me started . . . ) but I have found other ways of doing some things that make more sense to me. A local luthier recommended a mortise and tenon neck joint, and Cumpiano's praise of that combined with barrel bolt type fasteners have convinced me to try that. I think it will allow more leeway for me to work around some imperfections in body shape.

Slowly but surely (well, with a few hiccups), I am making progress on my two Norman Blake style OMs with bodies à la Jonathan Kinkead. The necks are rough carved and rough fitted but look not too bad, given weird problems with bodies not quite true. I decided on bolt-on mortise and tenon joints, partly because of the body quirks. Next step is to try my first mother of pearl inlay on the pegheads (a little) and then start the fingerboards, which will be 1 7/8" at the nut. I have to cut slots in the heads too. Every step seems to involve buying (or making) a new tool or some additional material, so delays along the way.

I ran into issues getting truss rods. One of the photos shows the three I have bought: one from Bow River Woods (a nice low profile and no border to cross), one from Stew Mac (seems popular), and the last from John Hall, who was most helpful, and it works. All three were sold "for 12-fret guitars" but as you can see there is a big difference, and I could not see how to make the first two work.

P.S. I'm really interested to see others building Norman Blake style guitars. I've never found one to play but I love the concept and I'm really looking forward to finishing these.

I know what you mean about buying or making more tools as you progress. You never seem to know exactly what you need for a specific task, until you start. Out of all of my endeavors, guitar building takes the most specialized tools, which have to be further tweaked for the user.

You're coming along. They look really good.

No doubt with thedelays involving tools. Pretty soon I'm going to try to make some radius dishes. At my pace that should push back any other guitar building for a couple weeks. I'll be interested to see the finished products here. I like the body shape.

As we early-in-their-projects beginning builders have found, we need to tool up for series production when we only want to make three...it don't matter how many instruments are made from a particular tool, that tool needs to be made and its use learned.

Instruments were made without electricity for thousandss of years. Many guitars have been made with a couple of tools. There is a simple work-around for every step in the process. You still have to earn a little skill with tools, but they don't have to be complex or expensive. Jigs are usually very simple and cheap to make, and I think I have never spent more than 1/2 hour making one. You don't need dishes or go bar decks to get the desired result, although they can make things easier.

Check this out:

http://acousticguitarbuild.blogspot.com

Ed

My problem is with understanding a process with limited tools. For example, radiusing rims with a dish is easy for me to conceptualize, i understand it. I know plenty of people do without, but without a great tutorial, I just can't wrap my head around it. So I get to spend a few hours making some radius dishes. The way i see it, If I do them right I'll have them around for the next 5 guitars. It does kill the momentum of a build though...

I have built 7 now and the last one was completely from scratch. I have decided that the "dish" process takes so little time that I will stick with the battens. Look at the next 10 or so slides to see how it goes

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 029319394/

Ed

Time for a long overdue update on these two guitars. There have been lots of distractions (like more grandchildren . . . ) but I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Apart from the fact that they're "OM" bodies with 12 fret short-scale necks, they are pretty simple treatments. Lots of fiddling and fitting but the necks are on and I think will be okay. I used a bolt-on mortise and tenon joint which was fairly forgiving. First attempts at slotting pegheads, and slotting fretboards (both with homemade jigs) and inlaying mother of pearl turned out okay. I've made a jig to slot the bridges and will do that next weekend. Waiting (story of a Canadian beginner-luthier's life) for fret nippers from the US (with a 60% exchange rate!) so I can do the frets. The necks are petty much the same width as Martin's Norman Blake model, so wider than some guitars. The necks look pretty good, but may be a little on the heavy side because I was afraid I would start seeing truss rods coming through the undersides. There are some minor patches to do on the bodies before finishing. After much consideration, I have decided to lacquer them. It seems there is some room to polish and buff out the imperfections of first attempts. One more big learning curve . . .

it isn't the time as much as the journey
looking forward to seeing them completed.