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Why oh why didn't I just do simple binding for my first?



Oh well, at least there's wiggle room on the top's thickness...

simple fix you can work out some of the purfling and redo that section. Tell us what you did and how you did it. I see what look like plane bite on the top. When scraping binding you go along the edge following the corner first , then work on the top. The missing piece can be fixed if you have some pieces yet.

Yup, my block plane just tore out that section. I managed to graft it back in but tore out another section elsewhere. The bite.in the cedar is from the edge of the scraper but I'm learning. My next build is going to be with spruce though!

It more looks like you were going in the wrong direction. With planes and scrapers . with the grain is very important. You learn more from failures than successes

I'm finding thst the real trick is to stay within a certain angle - which might not be right since it also begins to look like the cedar has bearclaw; meaning that I'still scratching it, only not as deep.

It's frustrating learning through making such potentially disastrous mistakes, though.

If you have really good 1/4 sawn cedar, that bearclaw may actually be a good thing. The first redwood topped guitar I built - my second guitar - was straight grained and lovely, then I sanded it and all this figure began to appear. I freaked out. I asked my supplier - Ken C - about it and he pointed out that that is a good quality in well sawn wood. And it is lovely under finish. Of course, since you're bookmatched, the sanding will have to be consistent; also, the figure may only appear in areas, but being bookmatched it will look correct.

This pic does not show it too well, but beneath the soundhole you can see a bit of the figure. a different camera angle would have shown it better.

When scraping purfling I like to put a couple of wraps of masking tape on the in board end of the scraper. This prevents the scraper from touching the wood you don't want to touch. I'm also a bit of a coward in regard to using a plane on the installed top.
Tom

I have used a plane to bring down the binding/purfling on the top and cut where I shouldn't have been a cuttin, so I've gone back to scraper, and the RO sander......same for the rosette!

Kevin