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Showing posts from July, 2015

Vintage Chisels

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[The] offset chisel allows paring nearly flat on the work without the fingers getting in the way, and gives better visibility when making vertical cuts. Aldren A. Watson, Hand Tools, Their Ways and Workings , 1982 Someone asked me the other day if I liked the chisels that are sold by Luthiers Mercantile Inc, click here for the website, and I replied that I do, I own three of them now and I may buy more. Maybe. A 10mm LMI chisel with a new hickory handle These are still my favorite chisels, vintage ones that I have picked up at flea markets over the years. The chisels (my one inch wide Samson chisel is not in this picture) are Keen Cutter, Union Hardware, Stiletto, Stanley, and um, I can't remember the other brand. That doesn't matter, these chisels work for me. Nothing fancy, they hold an edge and if they get dull after a while I take a break and sharpen them. A violin maker once tried to get me to buy his set of Berg chisels, he extolled their virtues for

A Mile Stone and Sapele Guitar Bindings

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The purfling consists of simple rosewood fillets... Luca Waldner, describing a guitar made by Antonio Torres On July 4, 2015, my blog received its 250,001 hit! Thank you to all of you who visit or have visited my blog! I am very grateful for that! Also on the 4th, other than being the 17th anniversary of me marrying my beautiful wife, I had some time to start glueing the black/purflings to the sapele binding that will go the latest guitar. This is a western red cedar/Indian rosewood guitar that I am constructing for the 2016 Guitar Foundation of America Convention that will be held in Denver, Colorado. I have posted about this guitar elsewhere in my blog. I bought a sapele back and side set from LMII about fifteen years ago to make a guitar, but never got around to making it because I never really like any wood that looks like mahogany. I don't get a kick from mahogany. I had wanted to make a soprano ukulele from this sapele set, I got the top and back cut out,

Remodeling My Current Workshop/Studio

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It is a small shop, cluttered with pieces of wood, guitars of many types and in various stages of disrepair and repair, and photographs of Sabicas, the Romeros and other friends decorate the wall. Gerald J. Bakus, A Comprehensive Reference to the Classical and Flamenco Guitar , 1977 Today, I started pulling down the old wall paneling in my studio. I plan on replacing it with tongue and groove paneling made from aspen. The original paneling was made to look like pine, but the owners previous to use had painted it white which made the paneling even more ugly. Here is a before photo. My life is one big clutter. Here is what the wall looked like at 5pm this afternoon. The room behind the exposed studs is our bathroom, which is the next project to be done in the house. My wife and I want to house to be ours and to reflect the tastes of the original owners, Colonel Reginald Barnsley and his wife, Jeanette. The rest of the house is paneled with pine and the faux pine pa