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Okay, so I took the advice of the pros, thinned some bloodwood binding down
to .063", soaked it in boiling water, prebent the shape on the bending iron
to close to the form (the binding actually bent like butter at this
thickness, heating and "giving" quite rapidly). Then I put the close to
shape bent bindings back to soak for a few minutes, and then put them into
the mold I made. Let them dry almost 24 hours, and when I took them out, I
had perfectly bend to shape binding for my cutaway.


What a process this has been, and a learning experience. I have found that
I CAN use bloodwood bindings, but they will cooperate much better if I thin
them down.


I will be backing all binding with a .020" black fiber purfling to bring
them out to a finished .080" thickness, and it should look just fine.


Here are a few pictures of the process.


Once they are glued to the guitar, and all scraped down, I'll show a picture
of that stage.


Thanks to all of you for your input and help. I was CLOSE to giving up on
the bloodwood.


Kevin

Some more pics......also progress with the end graft in, and gluing on the BWB top and back purfling.

Cheers.

Kevin

Glad you got the binding sorted out. Its looking good!

you learned something , that alone is a good thing

Thanks for that mini-tutorial Kevin. Looking good.

congratulations Kevin, glad it worked for you.

Did you put boiling water in that big storage bin? Crazy!

Yes, I learned it would be simplier to never use bloodwood binding again!!! However, I now have two complete sets left over, so I guess I will have to use them someday.
Darren, I did put the boiling water in that tub, however, only enough to submerse the stips, then I put the lid on and kept the steam in. Within just 5 or 10 seconds after taking the binding out, it was cold to the touch...so much for the heat part of it, but I think it did help quite a bit.
Tonight I will start installing the binding....

Kevin

sweet. just don't use them on a cutaway again. :)

That is correct, they bent fine for the non-cutaway side.
And.....now I have a form to bend the cutaway bindings next time I do the cutaway dred....I like the shape I ended up with.

Kevin

Good show, Kevin! Glad you found an approach that works! Keep the pix and progress reports coming!

Ken