Argapa 100 under the knife

I’m a bit behind in posting, but will catch up. These pics are from last week. 

My eight string soprano was made from mahogany, all of it. A great wood for most parts, but the bridge was a wee bit too soft for the string pull. They ate their way into the wood and it was time to deal with it. 

I rigged a cardboard protective layer. I was still at the cottage, hiding from the scorching sun. 



With my Japanese model making saw I carefully cut two slots just beside the holes. 



With a thin chisel of the mortise chisel kind I cleared the wood out between the saw slots. My plan was to laminate a few black maple purfling strips together with ca glue and fit that into the slot. 



And here it is in place. I planed it down together with the surfaces of the bridge. It was a bit high and will be better now. 



Cool innit. Looks like it was meant to be this way. 



I strung it up with a set of Aquilas and a set of Worth browns, so the strings wouldn’t sound the same. A bonus was the ebony/ivory thing going on at the bridge was carried over to the rest of the uke.