The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

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Diane Kauffmds
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The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

This Commission, number 25. It's a short scale OM, with golden era type bracing. Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany. The guitar will have an Irish theme. So the rosette, purfling, and especially the fretboard, will reflect it.

I'm blogging the fretboard separately, because it's a custom inlaid vine.

I got some work done prior to my shoulder surgery. Hopefully I can continue quickly.

The top/back are joined. I've bent the sides, installed the neck and tail blocks, and kerfing. The rosette is in. The rosette is made of burl bubinga, a beautiful wood. It's surrounded by Purflex, which consists of an extremely thin figure cnc'd in maple, on a flexible base.

For those of you who've never heard of or worked with purflex, they have several designs and widths in which to choose, including full rosettes. They have a good selection of celtic and florintine, as well as abalone. They make matching components, like strap buttons.

The designs are only about .040" thick. There is no room for error. It can't withstand much sanding at all. After inlaying, the design has to be filled with black epoxy. We chose a celtic purfling, which is 1/8" wide.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Here is the wood I'm using. It's really beautiful. I've got the top and back joined.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
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Diane Kauffmds
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

The purflex has to go in with a very minimum amount of sanding. If you sand it much, you'll go right through the design.
After inlaying the bubinga, I inlaid the purflex, just slightly deeper. The entire cavity and surrounding top was thoroughly wash coated with shellac 3x.

After allowing the Epoxy to cure overnight. I sanded it back to reveal the design.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
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RHayes
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by RHayes »

Diane, Did you first cut pocket for for bubinga, glue it in place, then go back and cut groove for purflex?
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

RHayes wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:04 am Diane, Did you first cut pocket for for bubinga, glue it in place, then go back and cut groove for purflex?
No. I cut the pocket the size of the purflex and bubinga together.
both at once, inlaid them, and cut the soundhole through both the rosette and spruce, since I wanted the rosette to go completely to the soundhole.

Even if it was a traditional rosette, with separate rings, I cut all pockets at once.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Diane Kauffmds wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:36 pm
RHayes wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:04 am Diane, Did you first cut pocket for for bubinga, glue it in place, then go back and cut groove for purflex?
No. I cut the pocket the size of the purflex and bubinga together, then cut both at once, inlaid them, and cut the soundhole through both the rosette and spruce, since I wanted the rosette to go completely to the soundhole.

Even if it was a traditional rosette, with separate rings, I cut all pockets at once.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
ruby@magpage.com
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Diane - did you buy black epoxy or color some clear? Where did you get it? I really like the celtic stuff
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by jread »

You have explained this before but I’m still confused. Are you saying that you inlay a full, round coaster shaped piece of bubinga into the spruce? Ie, remove spruce all the way to the center pin?

That might help me as I tend to break my wooden rings if I make them ahead and try to inlay them. I do like flush to the sound hole and cut just wider than the inner ring. But inlaying a coaster sounds like it might be better.
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

ruby@magpage.com wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:18 am Diane - did you buy black epoxy or color some clear? Where did you get it? I really like the celtic stuff
I have a couple of clear epoxies in the shop that I'm using for inlaying. I used a this epoxy mixed with a very small amount opaque black color.

Because I can only quote someone and put 1 url into a post, I'll put another post with the url to the color.

Here's what I used:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BM9LHRB/re ... UTF8&psc=1
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: The Irish OM Appalachian red spruce/sinker mahogany

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

ruby@magpage.com wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:18 am Diane - did you buy black epoxy or color some clear? Where did you get it? I really like the celtic stuff
Ed, this is the black color. It's called liquid, but it's very thick, almost a paste. I used a tiny amount, because it goes a long way. I use a scale and I mix the Epoxy by weight. The scale has 1ml increments, but initially will only recognize 3ml. I mixed a total of 6ml (3ml each, hardner/resin), then used not even a 1/2 drop of the color. I just dipped the end of a toothpick into the color and mixed it in.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007X4AG46/re ... UTF8&psc=1
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
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