A "Mae West" style Lacote Guitar, part 2

"You see, Doctor Archie, what one really strives for in art is not the sort of thing you are likely to find when you drop in for a performance at the opera. What one strives for is so far away, so beautiful that there's nothing one can say about it."

Thea Kronberg, The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather, 1915

Here are some photos of the Lacote, I just glued the back on this afternoon, along with some photos of the shop. Will write more later, it's time to head to our water hole, River Rock Cafe in Mariposa.


The top is ready, I made a caul to use when I glue on the bridge, the back bars are fitted to the basswood lining.


I like to use fish glue (from Lee Valley) to glue the main parts of the guitar, it dries so hard that it is almost impossible to remove it with a sharp chisel. I really like using spools clamps to glue on the back with, so much easier, and less smelly, then the inner tube strap that Cumpiano suggests in his book.


Eat your hearts out, you people who think that the inside of a guitar should be completely glue free. As my wife said, you play the outside of a guitar, not the inside!



Some shots of my shop, one of these days I will install a real floor to insulate the shop from the concrete, new shelves and a cabinet workbench. The boards that are leaning against the wall are California laurel, bubinga, redwood. I just bought 3 Englemann spruce tops from LMI at a price that I am sure I will never see again, the wood is just beautiful!

Moore Cottage, Wawona Hotel, Yosemite National Park

"...to quote an old saw from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 'A good plan makes a good elevation'.
Harvey Ellis, The Craftsman,1901-1904



The Moore Cottage at the Wawona Hotel complex at Wawona in Yosemite National Park, built in 1896 for the Washburn family that ran the Wawona Hotel at the time. It is part of a national historic landmark. Quite the Victorian era building. The nomination form states that the windows in the cupola are Palladian, one of our interns thinks that is incorrect, so I told her that maybe we should say that the windows are "Palladian-esque". She said she could live with that.


In 2003, the Historic Preservation crew lifted the porch and put a foundation under and replaced all the 2x4's that were inside the porch columns with 4x4's and now I am going back through attaching straps from the top of the posts to the bottom plate of the cripple wall that supports the porch roof. It takes an hour to pull off all the molding, cornices and fascia, 2 minutes to install the strap and then another hour to put it all back together. There are 3 more posts to finish, then I tweak a few pieces of crown mold back into place and move to the next project.

Splitting Firewood

The ax is a symbol.

William Coperthwaite, A Handmade Life, 2007


The back porch thermometer reads 103F right now, and there is only a slight breeze. The last two mornings I have worked at splitting the oak and ponderosa pine I felled and cut up this spring, the oak (valley oak and black oak) is almost dry, but the pine is almost as wet as when I first cut it. Amanda and I plan on replacing the pellet wood stove that came with the house this winter for a real wood stove, one without a fan, an auger and doesn't have to be plugged into an electrical outlet. Living down here in Mariposa County has made me soft, because the house is insulated and I now that I work all winter, I haven't had the need to cut and split 4-5 cords of wood every year. I didn't realized how much I miss splitting firewood.


Before all of you start saying "What is he crazy? Who would miss splitting firewood? That's alot of work!" Yes, it is work, but it is enjoyable work and splitting wood is very much like life, you never are really sure what is going to happen next or what you will find. Each piece of wood splits differently, you don't always swing the splitting maul accurately enough to hit that split in the end and it is amazing what kinds of insects you will find living in wood and the bark. Our house in Colorado was on the corner of Ski Road and 2nd Ave, in a fish bowl, and summer residents would walk past as I split my wood. I got tired of all of them saying, "Boy, that looks like a lot of work!" To make them scurry away, I would always stop, rest my axe on the chopping block, smile at them and reply, "To work is to pray."


These next 2 photos are for my friend, Dave, just wanted you to see a little Collins double-bitted cruising axe that I picked up a couple of years ago at an antique store, it is about an inch smaller than the Warren Tool and Axe Company cruising axe that I use for carving spoons! By the way, the splitting maul in the photos is probably close to 60 years old, I remember it looking old when I was young kid playing in my grandparents woodshed.


This is a Collins single bit "Boy's Axe" that my father bought for me when I was about 10-11 years old, I guess around 1972-73. It's a great axe. I remember my dad took me to the Western Auto Store to pick it out for my birthday, it's a great axe just for that.

Superintendent's Residence, Yosemite National Park

In slating or shingling a roof, great care should be taken at the hips, ridges and valleys. Where the roof is shingled, two or three courses should be left off at the ridge until the two sides are brought up, then the courses left off should be laid together, and in such a manner as to have them lap over each other alternately. This can easily be done if the workman uses a little judgment in the matter; and a roof shingled in this manner will be perfectly rain tight, without the ridge boards or cresting.

William Radford, Practical Carpentry, 1907



I had to get up on the roof of Residence #1 this week with Fritz and Paul to find out why the roof is leaking. This photo from HABS taken in 1979 shows you the valley on the upper roof where we were working. We tore up the shingles in the valley, put ice and water shield down on the sheathing and then installed new cedar shingles. Will see if the roof leaks over the winter.

By the way, the building is boarded up and the interior is in terrible condition, some people higher up at Yosemite National Park want to tear it down, others want to move it, others want to restore it. I would like to see it restored, to a nice building. Go to

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/

and enter Superintendent's Residence to see other photos of the building in its glory days.

A "Mae West" style Lacote guitar

My face is my passport.

Vladimir Horowitz




(Dear Friends: There are more posts on this guitar, please see the months of January, June and July 2010. This guitar is being french polished this month, November 2011, stay tuned for postings on that. Wilson)

The sides are on the "Mae West" Lacote, when the tendinitis in my right elbow subsides (it is so bad I can't swing a hammer or shake hands with someone, the pain is pretty righteous!) I will attach the back. Before I do that I need to cut away the sides from the heel block so I can start "chalking in" the neck, the joint is very similar to a violin neck joint, just a "V" joint.



I am building this guitar for myself that is why I used pre-made basswood lining from Stew-Mac. I know that the lining of these old beasts should be solid, but I just don't have the time anymore to bind solid linings. The next romantic guitar I will build on an inside form just as a violin maker would do and also laminate the linings. I remember when I use to hand saw the kerfing into all the linings, back when I was laid off for six months at a time.