Heading to Work . . .
As usual Phil and I arrived well before the ‘young blokes’ . . . age and treachery will nearly always overcome youth, from my experience! I entered the building via the sewer rat route and I half expected to meet Phil along the way – but he was too busy having his double shot drugs served intravenously from Caffe Nero in the High Street. And Richard also had a big night . . . guitar setup, band practice and doing the guitar set up again, so he too needed hit of caffeine as the day got under way. Luckily I lead a simple life! Nick also ‘delivered’ the mail, including a few copies of Acoustic magazine – it was interesting watching Nick and Richard skimming the pictures. They found a photo of one of Nick’s guitars and were most interested in who was doing what and how they were constructing instruments. But having bent frets was a new one for all of us . . . you really have to wonder why – and imagine doing a re-fret!
 |
| What is the collective noun for luthiers? |
 |
| Solution looking for a problem |
On with the Job . . .
I arrived at the workshop early and got on with my logo . . . it is coming along very nicely and only needs a little touching up here and there before it is complete and I rout it into the ebony headstock. Another early task was to take the binding I made for Patrick and me out of the clamps . . . it looks really nice and is now ready to be cut into longitudinal strips.
 |
| Binding ready to be cut |
 |
| And a lovely job as well! |
On with the Top . . .
My first main task for the morning was to do a lot of tidying up of the inside of the top – I spent several hours going over and over the various components with 80, 120, 180 and 320 grit sandpaper. Mind you, this is a pointless task as NONE of the inside of the top will ever be seen by anyone!! That said, now is the time to think about writing something inside the guitar like Richard always does – and only I will know it is there!
 |
| The reference top! |
Sanding the Kerfing . . .
When I attached the kerfing yesterday I deliberately left about it about 1mm proud of the Indian Rosewood (except in one little place!) – so it now needed to be sanded down to the same level all around both sides of the guitar. This involves using the sanding discs again and going down until Indian Rosewood dust can be seen all the way around. I had to do some extra work where the kerfing was a little lower than the side . . . but that quickly came into to the right level. The noise from this sanding is awful – a bit like running fingernails down a chalkboard! And the Indian Rosewood dust is nasty stuff – I always wear a mask when messing around with these sanding discs.
 |
| Sanding the kerfing |
 |
| Such skill and touch - look over here Phil and you might learn something! (or you might just see an Aussie bloke jiggling about with a sanding disc) |
 |
| More work on the back section |
 |
| Indian Rosewood dust |
 |
| Makes a very good impression |
Getting Ready to Fit the Back . . .
Now it is starting to get really exciting . . . I am preparing to align the back of the guitar with the sides. The first stage in this process involves carefully aligning the sides over the back and marking where the braces need to be trimmed – much like I did with the top braces the other day. They all need to be left 5mm longer than the mark as they will be running underneath little grooves in the kerfing – which is coming next. And of course the more you work with an object the more ‘little bits’ of sanding and tidying up you see that could be done . . . so I did!
 |
| Marking up the braces |
 |
| Trimming the braces to size |
 |
| Very careful now! |
 |
| Just a little more sanding here! |
Amazing Excursion . . .
When Richard came back from lunch he said let’s go on an excursion – but did not say where! We headed off thinking we might be going to drive down the road somewhere – but we only walked 25m and entered our building through another door and went up a couple of flights of stairs and knocked on a blue unmarked door! Once inside we climbed some more stairs, which were in fact more like a ladder, and ended up in beautifully light little luthier’s studio.
We were visiting the workshop of Alexander Batov . . . “maker of early bowed and plucked instruments”, including viols, guitars, lutes and vihuelas. Frankly we were all just amazed – not only with the instruments and the workshop, but that he was in the same building as us and we didn’t even know. And Alexander is a most humble man and happy to share his knowledge and love of these early instruments. Originally from Russia, he apparently started out working as a museum curator of early instruments but has been making them for about 30 years. The research that goes into each instrument defies belief . . . he recreates instruments exactly as they were as far back as the 16th century both in construction methods and appearance.
There are a few photos below, but the best way to see his work is to look at www.vihuelademano.com . . . it was such an honour to meet and visit the workshop of a world expert in such a interesting field – thanks Richard!
 |
| No coments needed! |
 |
| I reckon I could knock one of these up in 20 minutes! |
Fitting the Back . . .
The next step in preparing the back for fitting involves cutting out little sections of the kerfing where the braces will ‘disappear’ under the kerfing. You use a special code to indicate whether a whole section, a whole section and a half or two halves will be removed and then chisel them out using the 6mm chisel. From then on it is trial and error and it took about half a dozen trial fits before I finally got it down well – and I am especially pleased with how it all went together where the kerfing will be seen through the sound hole.
I did make one mistake during this process . . . doing detailed jobs like this tends to give you tunnel vision and you lose sight of the big picture. I was concentrating so hard on the chiselling that I simply followed my pencil mark codes all the way around and ended up chiselling out one section that was in fact marked from a previous process! It is no problem though as the section can easily be replaced and it is right at the bottom of the guitar well out of sight!
 |
| Cutting slots for the back bracing |
 |
| Very carefully! |
 |
| Whoops! |
Side Braces . . .
My last job for the day involved cutting some little side braces . . . they are little strips of spruce that are glued to the inside of the sides and run between the upper and lower layers of kerfing . They are surprisingly easy to make using a special little jig with a Japanese saw and chisel. I have most of them cut out and will finish the job first thing in the morning – and then glue them into place.
 |
| Side brace jig for chamfering . . . |
 |
| . . . and cutting |
The Others . . .
Patrick managed to glue his back to the sides today! It was a huge moment and we all gathered around to watch the gluing down ceremony.
 |
| It fits! |
 |
| Now for some glue! |
 |
| Carefully glue the edges |
 |
| Put on the jig |
 |
| And clamp it all down very hard! |
It seemed that Phil spent most of the day ‘voicing’ his top . . . and his top and back are now ready for gluing down in the morning.
 |
| The Gardener's Arms - with a lovely Speed Triple out the front and an idiot in the doorway! |
 |
| Extensive interviewing process in action |
 |
| Secondary source - not much information here! |
Get on with it, will ya? There's an eager public out there hanging on your every word.
ReplyDelete