Week 1 . . .Day 5.5

The Workshop . . .

Richard’s workshop is right in the centre of the old Lewes and amongst various 1,000 year old buildings and structures.  We are working on the middle level in the corner of this building in Castle Ditch Lane . . . so called because it was originally the moat to the castle right behind me.  The castle was built by William de Warenne as a gift for his part in ‘winning’ the Battle of Hastings in 1066 – and he happened to be the brother in law of William the Conqueror.  Thanks to one of my anonymous blog followers – the Star Brewery building was indeed part of the Beard empire of breweries and pubs.

I went on a walking tour of the Twiddens (little streets – and I was the only customer for the day) before the course and my guide told me that there were some 80 breweries in Lewes.  But then maybe that isn’t surprising as one of the biggest health risks was contaminated water – so they all drank beer even for lunch . . . and hence the British tradition of meeting at a pub and drinking pints. Or that’s Phil’s story and his excuse for having a ‘couple of pints’ every day. 

Richard's workshop

Back to the Guitar . . .

Despite him having led me astray at the Volunteer last night listening to a blues band, coincidentally Phil and I both front up at 8:30am to get a head start on some outstanding tasks.  I managed to work on three or four separate components today . . . I had decided to make a push to bring number of things to a reasonable state of conclusion to mark the end of the first week.  Phil seemed to be of a similar mind and even Patrick came in a bit early to get along with his jobs.

The Neck . . .

The first job for me was to plane down the two front surfaces of the neck . . . that is the finger board and the head (where the strings are attached to the top of the guitar).  Although it is entirely a personal choice, Richard has decided to make slightly greater angle between the finger board and neck since he rough cut these necks.  All this meant that we have all done quite a bit of planing of the mahogany – which is a beautiful wood to work with, especially with good tools.

Getting perfectly flat and parallel on two planes is a difficult task even when using a machine – and by hand it is another of these ‘dark arts’, I am sure.  I don’t know how many times I thought I had it perfect and Richard would find some bump or imperfection somewhere – which of course meant reworking the job each time.  I finally got there!

Planing in two planes does your head in!

Beautiful shavings - and a lovely smell

Neck Block . . .

Last night I glued parts of my neck block together and they were now ready for further work – so I took a look at what Patrick had done and copied his piece.  This bit goes underneath the fretboard where it comes over the top of the guitar and the process involved quite a bit of cutting, shaping, planning and sanding – all of which is a bit silly as these parts will never see the light of day again once the ‘box is assembled’!    But of course there is pride and the knowledge that everything is just perfectly finished.

On the way to the very best neck block in this class! (You wish! - Phil)

Top Braces . .  .

My other main task for the morning was to fit and glue the other braces to the underside of the guitar – which is where I left off last night.  This is a reasonably simple job – but of course given our general paranoia to get everything just so (these will never be seen again either!) I spent quite a bit of time cutting, chiselling and planing the braces so they joined the main X-brace without a thousandth of a millimetre gap!   

Once they were all cut and sanded I glued them all and put them in our favourite device – the Gobar Box behind my bench.  It is our favourite because things only go in there when they are finished AND have passed Richard’s exacting test - so it always means another significant step forward!

Another big step - top braces in the the Gobar Box

The Sides  (Round One) . . .

Pushing on like a man possessed, my next task involved measuring and cutting my beautiful Indian Rosewood sides to the right width – which of course will determine the depth of the guitar once it is all put together.  As mentioned elsewhere, I am building a smaller guitar because it complements my ‘fleet’ of instruments . . . does anyone know the collective noun for guitars – except an expense or perhaps excess?  

I have decided to increase the depth of the guitar by 5mm – and yes, I know that is only half a centimetre.  It is my choice, right!  The short of all this is that I only needed to take a few millimetres off my sides to bring them down to 107mm (which will be a finished 105mm). . . which I did with great care and skill on the band saw.  Actually, I had one anxious moment with this as I initially thought I had cut the wrong (planed) side, but I quickly worked out that it was in fact correct.

I also went to the sanding room and gave the outsides a good clean up with the orbital sander using an 80 grit pad.  Sanding Indian Rosewood is a very dusty business, but the resulting grains and smoothness are lovely to see as they emerge.

Beautifully cut and sanded sides

Routing the Block Slot for the Neck . . .

Although this is only half a day, I had decided to keep things moving along.  I kept and ear open to Richard’s instructions to Phil about routing out a slot into which the neck block will sit . . . and it sounded like so much fun I thought I would go and watch how he did it. 

I checked with Richard that I was on the right track and under Phil’s now expert tuition (he has been an expert for all of five minutes!) I routed out the slot.  Routing is such a satisfying thing to do . . . it is brutal, noisy and dusty but the results are immediate and immaculate - so long as you have routed the right place.

Speaking of that, Phil and I had another anxious moment when we thought I routed too far . . . but it was not to be and we were exactly right.

Instructor Phil demonstrating how to get routed!

Routing my own neck

The Sides (Round Two) . . .

My next task was to thickness (that is thin!) the sides down to 2.2mm.  This was going to take a while in my case as I happened to score some extra thick ones that were about 5.5mm.  So back to the sanding room I went to get on with the job.

One of the tricks with this task to ensure that the Indian Rosewood goes through the thicknesser at a slight angle so as to maximise the exposure of the wood to the sanding drums – otherwise they get clogged up with the considerable oil that comes out of the wood.  And another trick is realising that the ends of narrower pieces of wood (such the 107mm sides) will thickness (!) quicker at the end that goes through the machine first.  So you need to swap the wood around and ensure that you get an overall measurement with the callipers.

Thicknessing (!) the sides

Thicknessed sides and planed neck

  

The Others . . .

Patrick noticed a problem with his ‘bling’ pearl rosette . . . it appeared that one of the layers of maple had lifted out.  It looked like a ‘disaster’ and I probably would have been inclined to pull it all out and start again if it had been up to me!  But Richard performed some luthier magic and got it sorted!  It seems he has the skills, eyesight and patience of a jeweller!   For the rest of the morning Patrick got on with making numerous adjustments to his sides using the bending iron – and he also put a decorative ‘end graft’ the bottom of the guitar.

I challenge you to find Richard's repair!

Sawing a place for the end graft

Finessing the bent sides

Patrick pleased with his progress

Phil’s main task seemed to be bracing his back . . . and he did a marvellous job at it – apart from cutting a few mm on the wrong side of a line.  It was easily fixed by moving that brace a few mm – something that no one will ever know, although I think I might constantly remind him for the rest of the course!   And of course he also routed the groove in his neck to fit the neck block – he is now officially the instructor on this process!

Marking the cuts for the back braces

Brace number 1!

That's looking really nice Phil!

End of Week One . . .

We all feel as we have made marvellous progress with our guitars.  Both Phil and I think that Patrick is the ‘stand out’ student . . . or as Phil says he is "really crackin’ on an' 'e could probbly take Satdeys orff”! 

I have got the top of my top (if you know what I mean) ready for final finishing, the bottom of my top ready for scalloping some more of the braces (plus a few other braces to go in), the back largely done with the braces scalloped, the sides cut to size and thicknessed (!), the neck brace pretty much done and the main faces of my neck planed and smooth. 

Good progress

Phil and Patrick have done similar but different things as was the strategy . . . Patrick is more advanced with his neck (he has the truss rod groove routed) and has his sides bent, but has not done much with the back of the top.  Phil has his sides ‘finished’, back braced and has done about the same as me on the neck.  He hasn’t done any bracing on the back of his top – or inserted his beautiful handmade rosette.

So it is all looking very good and we are now aiming to get the boxes glued together by next Saturday!!

After Work . . .

Phil and I again indulged in our habit of having a ‘few pints’ after work . . . but this time it was in the evening at the Snowdrop pub.  A local blues roots band called The Contenders was playing at one of their regular haunts and the crowd loved it, yet again!  They had a stand-in drummer who was sensational . . . almost too good for the band!  Still, they had "beer drinking music" as a tag line under their banner, so I suppose that is about right!

And we feel as if we are part of the local music scene already – I got chatting to the band before they started and it turns out that Nick Benjamin (the other luthier the Star building and the other half of our daily Nick and Dick chats) made the bass and is the ‘fifth’ Contender.  Apparently they are shortly to be playing a street gig near the Lewes Arms (about 10m from Richard’s workshop) and Nick will join them.

The Snowdrop