Fresh lacquer
Red zebrawood & sitka OM getting sprayed.
Rain rain rain
Always nice to have a back up light box, even in New Mexico. Not a bad aroma either, on this amber varnish.
Indian rosewood
A nice stripe showed up while planing the radius. For an upcoming spalted dreadnought.
The foreman
Dellie watching closely as a head stock comes together.
Walnut and Sitka OM
Box closing
Walnut and Sitka OM
Double red/green/white fine herringbone rosette.
Quilted Sapele and Engelmann OM
Mahogany and Engelmann OM
Rosewood and Sitka OM
New thickness sander!
Oh wait…no…it's still just me and planes.
Lacewood/Engelmann OM
Fresh off the buffer, waiting for a bridge and some strings.
New buffer in the shop
It's not child labor! It's this great arbor buffer from Stew Mac.
Varnish color
3 coats of iron rosinate oil varnish
How much more to scrape...
I love making instruments with tool marks left from gouges and planes. This is how the back looks after about 30 minutes of gouging planing, and a tad of scraping. I’ll blend the edges in with a gouge soon…and be tempted to leave it as is.
Every 5 minutes
It's time to down tools and throw a Frisbee or tennis ball….
Keep on growing
I always love this time of year. Fresh air in the shop, spraying lacquer on guitars from winter…and of course watching a new batch of baby plants that my wife, the gardener always starts. This being New Mexico, who knows what might be growing…!
Marking the long arch
I love this method. Frankly I love any reason to use my old drill press. It was a lucky craigslist find on the day I found out the big home centers don't even stock drill presses any more.
Purfling glued in
On this Birdseye violin back
Uncomfortable close up!
Luckily it's just a violin…not a picture of me.
Birdseye del Gesu
A bit outside the box…finally getting to this cool piece of Birdseye. It also got me to finally setup my favorite #7 plane with a new blade.
