Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywood

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Ken C

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Ken C »

jbutler wrote:Ken,
Can you share your procedure for making your own purflings? What do you cut them with? etc.
Thanks,
John
John, any relation to the John Butler Trio? Love their music!

I sandwiched the bloodwood and osage orange between 0.010" black fiber. I used the approach I have used to apply veneers in the past, which is to spread on titebond using a serated or grooved spreader. My spreader is essentially a credit card with a bunch of evenly spaced notches cut in it with a bandsaw. By using this type of spreader, the glue is laid down in consistently sized little furrows. When the pieces are clamped together, the glue spreads out much more evenly than it would if the glue was just dolloped on and spread around with a finger.

I clamp the pieces up between a couple of cauls and let sit overnight. I resaw into strips using my thin kerf fretboard slotting blade on my table saw.

The first ones I did were some wider osage, and for some reason, the outer edge of the fiber developed a few ripples impacting only the last one or two purfling strips. I glued up some thinner osage purflings as well as the bloodwood and never saw the ripples again. Not sure why I got them the first time.

Ken
John S

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by John S »

Another beauty on the way, Ken. Did you stabilize the sides before or after bending? If the latter, I was just wondering how the CA reacts to the heat.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

John
Ken C

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Ken C »

John S wrote:Another beauty on the way, Ken. Did you stabilize the sides before or after bending? If the latter, I was just wondering how the CA reacts to the heat.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

John
Thanks John, I bent the sides first.

Ken
Ken C

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Ken C »

Making a little more progress on this one. Decided to go minimalist on the F/B inlays. I am now onto the finishing stages. Below are a few pictures of where the git sits now.
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Ken C

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Ken C »

Using Z-Poxy to pore fill--First time using this stuff. I'm hoping it doesn't shrink as much as TC's HSF. Got the first coat on this evening. Ordered a nice fresh gallon of EM6000 from Target a week ago and hope to shoot the first coats of lacquer next week.

Ken
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Tony_in_NYC
Posts: 827
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:11 pm

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Tony_in_NYC »

Fantastic! Two questions:
What is the fret board made of?

Does the Z-poxy have an odor? The package says it does not, but I suspect it does. I am planning on using it for the two koa guitars.
Ken C

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Ken C »

Tony, fretboard, bridge, and headstock laminate are all madagascar rw. The f/b is a really cool piece, which is why I decided to forgo inlays. Fret wire is the gold stuff LMI sells.

The Zpoxy has a bit of an odor, but minimal compared to other epoxies I have used. My wife didn't complain as she usually does when I break out the epoxy. I will post how the filling goes.

Ken
johnnparchem
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm
Location: Seattle
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Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by johnnparchem »

Ken, the guitar is a work of art. The spalted mango looks spectacular! Wow!

I wonder if the zpoxy will also help stabalize the wood. I've used products like it on my boat to stop rot.
Kevin Sjostrand
Posts: 3918
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:06 pm
Location: Visalia, CA

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by Kevin Sjostrand »

Amazing. Totally amazing. Under the finish it will be spectacular!

Kevin
msanch24

Re: Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywo

Post by msanch24 »

This guitar is breathtaking. I love it. That fretboard is gorgeous. And of course, the spalted mango is also.

-matt
Last edited by msanch24 on Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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