I'm back. Yay

For some reason, I was unable to add or edit my Blog for some time.  Finally figured out how to get back into it.   Soooo, what's up?  Well, progress is up.  I conducted tests on wood characteristics for two selected top wood pairs.  One is not very stiff and one is quite stiff.  These were selected as choices for C's guitar, but I won't decide which to use until I do more testing and sound analysis.  Meanwhile, I have several joined tops, which I won't be able to test, except to do the sound testing, because they're already joined.  I inlaid an earth rosette into one of these yesterday.  This is the first time I've cut the rosette cavity by hand.  Using my blade-through-a-stick cutter, I cut the inner and outer edges of the rosette cavity and then, using chisels, carved out the space for the rosette.  I've scraped the rosette nearly flush with the top, but have a bit more to do .  Along with the two new top pairs, I have several other joined, but not inlaid, tops that I will consider as candidates for this guitar.  I will inlay each with an earth rosette and then, testing the top as best I can and listening to the tap tones, I'll select THE top for C's guitar.

I've ordered filler and some abalam for inlay material.  I tried slabbing some abalone directly from some shells that I have, but this stuff is really nasty!  Using a very good OSHA dust and vapor mask, my dust collector and the new dust hood that I made, I still suffered some effects from the extremely fine dust that is produced when you cut abalone shell with a diamond saw.  The Abalam, which is a laminated material, can be cut using a coping saw and the amount of dust is minimal. Doing some networking with my Schmoll neighbors, I'll see if someone has the capacity to slab up some of the abalone shell I have.  It is very beautiful stuff and, if slabbed thin enough is not as bad to work with.

A young fellow named Paul, who works at Rockler, visited my shop and suggested that we might be able to use their CNC machine to do some inlay work.  I won't say more at this juncture, but there may be some surprises in store for certain guitar recipients.  But no promises. But this may delay delivery a bit. 

I also plan a couple of other things for these guitars.  When the fretwork is completed, I'm going to do two things:  First, I'm going to have the guitar played by one of the guys from the Classical Guitar group and make a recording of it.  Secondly, I'll have the guitar photographed professionally by a couple of guys who set up a studio at the framing shop next door.  They can put the images and the sound file together to make a CD with pictures of the features of each guitar AND the sound of it being played by a competent player.  Each owner will get a copy of this CD for their archive.  This, along with the archive derived from this BLOG site, will provide a nice history of each guitar.  I'll add some pictures later.