Bending Holly

[Stray Feathers]

In another thread I'm making two 00 guitars with different woods, and I had a learning moment recently. In a Fox style bender I bent rosewood sides together with Holly bindings for one guitar, and bent Black Walnut sides with rosewood bindings for the other. The rosewood and walnut sides, and rosewood bindings, all bent well to fit the mould. But the Holly bindings did not bend as well. In the photo the Holly binding is at the top, beside a rosewood binding. I don't know if Holly needs more heat or moisture or what. So I will have to bend the Holly a little more on a pipe (which I find challenging). The other challenge is to remember what I learned here . . . . ! Bruce W.

[glasalle1]

I have used Holly binding as well. I didn't have any issues bending it, but combined with Rosewood, I had a HARD time keeping it clean from Rosewood dust. I had to carefully put shellac on the holly to protect it whenever i was sanding the rosewood. I told myself never again lol.

Glenn

[MaineGeezer]

My ground-in-dirt problem has been sanding dust getting ground into the spruce top. I've found that using a scraper instead of sandpaper produces, I guess, larger-sized "dirt" that doesn't ground into light surfaces as easily.