Grant's 'ook-oh lay-lee strung up

That's my new spelling, innit!

It was hard enough putting it down for the time it took to take the pic, so descriptions will be made in the upcoming video. Watch fb and the forums. I must try to record the sound with my Zoom, and then sync and... hm. Might actually be built in mic as usual.

Finish

It's hard to take a decent pic of something shiny. But here's an attempt. There are maybe 6 coats of Tru oil on it so far, with some careful sanding in between. One coat was applied with the oil on a sandpaper, to grain fill. That gives you a slurry that is very hard to get even. I ended up rubbing the surface with my palms. I reek of Tru oil.

The essence of Argapa bridge theory

The unfinished bridge on Grant's uke, here with a replaceable pao ferro saddle. Some touching up, then glueing. But first, bike excursion with Ann and the wee monsters.

Tenor lined, Grant's uke sanded

Just a progress pic.

Fretboard and stuff

Good evening! I cut the slots and put the frets in tonight. In the pic the pao ferro fretboard just rests on the neck, and a rosewood bridge blank plays the part of mock up bridge. The pao ferro bridge blank was still too big to resemble a bridge.

No markers on this one, except for side dots. They'll be my regular 1.6 mm white dots.

Grant, are you still there..?

Grant, I thought, now there's a bloke in need of some good news. So here you are sir, maple binding is on and needs only some touch-ups.

And maybe a juniper fretboard? Hmm?

Binding, third attempt

My thumb looks weird, doesn't it? First I glued ivorid binding on Grant's uke. It looked bad. So I removed it and put walnut binding on. But there were gaps.

I removed that tonight, cleaned out the channel and now I'm making a multi layered wood binding. It'd better be good.

Boxed up, with neck

Looks a bit like a uke, now.

Short post, have to put the kids to bed.

Sides glued on Grant's uke

Progress. From here it feels like assembling.

Progress on Grant's uke

Neck carved, sides bent, blocks and topside lining installed, soundboard braced (one brace left).

The Spanish cedar neck was dead easy to carve. And it's light. I like it.

Finish, and a new beginning

The batch of five piccolos will get one or two more coats of tru-oil. I have a difficult time getting them shiny, more so than I thought I would from reading about it.

But underneath them, on the table, are a new set of sides for the soprano I'm making for Grant in England. The wood bent easily, but some oils came out to the surface. We'll see how it goes.