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While working on two ukuleles (my first) I was wrestling with getting the binding on with black/white purfling strips as well, with tight curves and less room to manoeuvre. I got one done pretty well, but on the second, on the back bindings, the purfling strips slid down off the ledge at the waist on both sides. leaving an ugly gap. I considered fashioning tapered filler strips to match the cherry back, but the binding was still sticking out and would be thinned when I levelled it. Since this a first effort and a keeper uke, I decided to try another approach. I cut out the binding back to a point where it fit well, and glued some purfling scraps to some binding scraps. I had some prebent binding scraps from some that broke when in the bender. Then I thinned the binding and tapered the ends to fit into the gap. I found a Dremel with a fine sanding mini-drum at low speed worked really well on small fiddly pieces. Then I glued the pieces into the gaps. I knew it would be apparent that there had been some patching done, but thought in this case it might be better than my first idea. After a little preliminary planing and scraping, they look pretty good. With the extra walnut filler bits, I can level the bindings at the waist with the sides without them looking too thin. If this was a showpiece, I guess the best thing would be to rout the bindings off and start again, but as a learning experience I was happy with this result. Bruce W.

U doo guud

Thank you, I've considered replacing a section before and re-routed the whole thing. I'll hope I don't need to try this but will next time.

I think you'll find that your grafted ends will further disappear as you finish the guitar. I'll look great.

Good job. How hard was it to get that section out with the awl?

It has bugged me that I work so hard to close the box and this step just throws the whole project off the rails to the point where you struggle with either loving it as it is or just throw it out in frustration.

The tool you see is not an awl - it's a very small carving tool with a chisel tip from Lee Valley, I think 1.5 mm, in the carving tools section, 44D14.15. This one is Lee Valley branded but I think there was a thread on here earlier (posted by Diane K. maybe?) about what looks like the same thing purchased elsewhere, perhaps as a set. Lee Valley sells a set, but it does not include this mini-chisel. It works quite well to clean the bottom of the narrow channel of glue etc. using it as both a chisel and a scraper. And I share your feelings about trying to get things just right and then "things" happen. But I also share Diane's view that they can look better than you think when all the repairs and touchups are done. I'll see how it goes . . .