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Hi All -

I am doing my first Florentine cutaway, and have a question about the binding process. I plan to bind the point of the cutaway, and the area where the cutaway meets the neck, plus the top of the guitar where it meets the cutaway. (Circled in photo)

I normally do my end graft before the top and back are on... would this also be a case where binding these areas before the top and back are on would be beneficial?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Eric

When I do those areas, I miter all the pieces at the ends. It would be harder to do IMO without the top and back on. At least for me anyhow.

Don't have an answer, but excellent question. I'm following this one.

I don't think there is a "right" answer for this question. I've done both ways and now prefer to install the binding piece before putting the top or back on.

As Glen mentions though, it's more difficult to miter the side corner pieces to the main binding if you install the corner binding before putting the top and/or back on.

Jim Olson puts his corner binding on before the top and/or back are installed so......

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Ken

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I like your thinking Ken!
Man, that guitar is dreamy!
Dan

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It is hard to get very good results doing it any other way than this:

Leo Buendias build thread at the AGF:

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/foru ... p?t=400216


The trick is you need to have your contours perfectly shaped before routing the top and back binding ledge. Once you do that, you go back and cut out the florentine points. I use a gramil, saw, and chisel. I then install the top and back binding including the top and back florentine sections. You then chisel out the miter from the binding points and then you add the side florentine binding/purlfing pieces. I also do the same thing at the tail. I route my tail inlay channel and the put an easy to cut out wood like spanish cedar. I just chisel it out after I've bound the top and back. I find this much, much easier to get perfect purfling miters this way. The Leo's build thread shows several of these steps and you can see how this process allows one to align everything very easily.

Here's a photo of one of my instruments - each florentine point is fully mitered.

Simon a question for you how do you miter the side purfling line at the tail after excavating the "tail wedge" channel?


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Hi Rod,
I bought a cheap Grizzly Japanese chisel and ground it to a specific dimension (use Pythagorean Theorem to solve for hypotenuse). I used my disc sander to grind the chisel very slowly. In my case, with two purfling lines that equal 0.055", I need a chisel width of roughly 0.08" to allow me to cut a 45 degree miter and not cut into the sides or the binding. I usually then fit in the purfling and then add the center wedge. My tail inlay is done in the classical style - for more complicated tail wedge shapes, you might want to do this before you install the top and back binding.

The reason to use the method I outline above is that you can install the binding all around the top and not have to worry about messing with the side purling at all. It just takes another issue out of the equation. Then you can come back and deal with all the side purfling miters in a straightforward manner. This method allows me to use Titebond whereas before, I would have to use CA glue and I prefer using a good quality wood glue over CA if it is possible.

Simon, I'm not sure which contours you're referring to? Anything I can think of would already be shaped before gluing the top or back on. Thanks for sharing this stuff. It's invaluable.

Well, I guess my question has been answered as "There's no right or wrong way". Thanks for all the knowledge gleaned!

By "contours", I'm referring to the final shape of the sides. For example, my tail region always ends up with a bit of a bump that needs to be softened and blended. In other words, attach the top and back and then get your sides perfectly flat, smooth, and blended. A nice trick I picked up from Mike Greenfield is to affix 3M Stickit sandpaper to a piece of spring steel. This does an amazing job of smoothing out the curves of the body.