Binding

It was time to bind the top of Li’s soprano. I bind spruce topped instruments, but those of single hardwoods I don’t always. 

First I trimmed the top flush with my wide chisel. 

Then I scribed the edge with my self made gramil. I have experienced tear-out on spruce and this helps prevent that. 

I aimed for a single piece of mahogany but the grain direction made one end of it snap so I ended up with two halves. 

Here’s the first one in place. Glueing with Titebond is nice, you have a much better open time than with ca glue. 



And both halves glued and taped, left overnight to dry. 



I am pleased with the result. If I have small gaps I can often remedy them with some spot heating and re-taping, but this time I won’t need to faff about with that. 

Scattered mind, random progress

Last week, in the larger workshop, I picked out some walnut and tried the perspex template for laying out some future fugly travellers. 

And more recently, in my home workshop, I made a top for Li’s ukulele. It’ll be spruce with a mahogany rosette. I am very fond of my rosette cutter. 



After glueing in the mahogany strip I level it with chisels and scrapers. 



Then I cut it out with my Knew concepts saw. 



I needed braces so I split a square piece of spruce in three parts with a rip saw. 



And after some faffing around it’s all good.