Patching a botched purfling
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2023 11:26 pm
I don't know how I did not notice this purfling glitch but as I prepared a dreadnought body to have its neck glued on, it glared at me accusingly.
I tried very hard to blame the purfling but I think I must have goofed somehow when gluing it. I'm getting better at realizing I don't want to look at these things forever, so I decided to repair it. The purflings were prebent mosaic purflings from Domo in Japan, sold by JAPARTS in Vancouver, BC. Fortunately I had bought two sets, and I decided if I was going to get this guitar into the finishing process this summer, I would have to sacrifice the second set (about $15 the set) to get a prebent patch to use. I heated the purfling with the tip of an iron to get it to loosen up, and found it was so poorly seated that, once started, it came up fairly easily (with care and newly honed chisels) and the damage went further than I initially thought.
I had to widen the channel a tiny bit in some places, and then glued the patch in. Needs a little more sanding and a little filling, but it will be better than what I had yesterday. Now I have to learn to do this right the first time, and not have to do it over . . . Bruce W.
I tried very hard to blame the purfling but I think I must have goofed somehow when gluing it. I'm getting better at realizing I don't want to look at these things forever, so I decided to repair it. The purflings were prebent mosaic purflings from Domo in Japan, sold by JAPARTS in Vancouver, BC. Fortunately I had bought two sets, and I decided if I was going to get this guitar into the finishing process this summer, I would have to sacrifice the second set (about $15 the set) to get a prebent patch to use. I heated the purfling with the tip of an iron to get it to loosen up, and found it was so poorly seated that, once started, it came up fairly easily (with care and newly honed chisels) and the damage went further than I initially thought.
I had to widen the channel a tiny bit in some places, and then glued the patch in. Needs a little more sanding and a little filling, but it will be better than what I had yesterday. Now I have to learn to do this right the first time, and not have to do it over . . . Bruce W.