Weeks 11, 12, and 13!

Hi everyone it’s been a while, I know, but I’ve been busy scraping and sanding the last few weeks! It’s been a lot of work, but the more I build the skill set, the more pleasing it is to do. If you don’t know already, I’m doing a one-on-one intensive guitar building school with the great Brian Hawkins, together we’re building my first acoustic guitar from scratch! He has a new website out, check it out by clicking HERE!

I ended Last time by putting the box together (*Click HERE to view last post), so now it was time to rout for the binding.

Routing the Binding

They say that the hardest part of guitar building is routing out the binding by hand. It’s very time consuming, and very easy to make a mistake if you’re not careful; this had gotten Brian thinking years ago thinking of ways to build a routing machine that made routing easy! What he came up with was an amazing machine that acts like an extension of your arm, while keeping everything study.

Here’s a video of his machine…

*You can view this machine and buy it by clicking HERE!

We began by setting up the guitar in the mold making sure everything was level, and then we screwed the mold down. The machine was very simple to use! However, I’m finding I really need to understand a machine before applying anything to it, so I had a few hiccups at the beginning, but ended up getting the concept and it was much smoother sailing from there on! The machine only goes back and forth, it pretty much routs by itself with the rig he uses; all you have to do is use your free hand to slow down or move the body of the guitar. Brian made the routing cut for our black top strip lining, because it’s wore advanced work since it is a smaller cut.

*Routing the binding

Once we got the guitar properly routed we took out the maple strips, and Brian cut out the black lining to outline the top.

*Cutting our lining

From there Brian showed me how to sand to get a lot of the rough patches out, he told be to go home and sand for next week. He also told me to buy an “S” file to smooth out the binding later.

I took it home and sanded away.

*Sanding at home

Bending and Gluing the Binding

The next week we started out by using my ”S” file to make all the places we had cut using the router smooth.

* "S" file example

After everything was nice and smooth we got to bending the binding. Bending the binding was exactly the same process as bending the sides, except we taped it all together. (*Click HERE to view my post on bending the sides)

After our binding was bent to shape we did a dry run of the binding using some blue tape, and marked where we would make our cut. We marked our cuts, and Brian made the cut using a special saw and box to make the cut just right.

*Bottom Left: dry running binding, Bottom right: making the cut

When we made the cuts, we were finally ready for gluing! This part is also advance, so while I prepped the tape, Brian put the glue on and began to place and tape down the binding. This is advanced, because you want to make sure everything is straight and that there’s limited gaps between the binding and the side of the guitar.

We did this process on one side, let it dry, and then again did it on the other.

*Half the binding glued and taped on top

Scraping and Sanding the Binding

When everything was dried, Brian showed me how to scrape down the binding to sand. I then took it home with the tape on to let it dry overnight.

The next day I began taking off the tape. Brian told me to use a hair dryer during this process to make sure everything was dry. I had to peel off the tape against the grain, so I didn’t strip the wood.

*Using hair dryer to pull of tape over binding, tools at their finest!

I then began using the hand scraper Brian gave me to scrape down the binding down to be even with the sides and the top/back. Folks, this is much harder than it sounds, and takes tons of time and patience, so needless to say the next week I was went to class I spent the entirety of it scraping… all day.

*Scraping down the binding

This time when I took it home Brian gave me a new scraper that I loved! He also showed me before leaving how to sand down the binding on the top and back, and to round off the binding.

*Hand sander, and scraper set

I finished the sides and most of the back! I’m still working on the top, but I am getting more comfortable using these tools; using them the way they were made to work, and not the way I want them to work. I’m also learning how to do things on my own. I’m learning what kind of environment I like to work in, and what kind I don’t. I’m learning to have lots of patience, vision, and prayer to build a love for this craft when things get tough.

I’m building this guitar for myself, but when I was working on it and kept thinking about myself only it didn’t give me much motivation or excitement and love to keep moving. But, when I realized that I didn't know what was going to happen with this guitar in the future, if I’d keep it, sell it, or give it away eventually something struck me. I began to realize that regardless of any of the above, I know that others will be playing this guitar, and if they are playing and enjoying my instrument, then I want them to have the best experience with it possible! This made me really put more care and attention to detail while building.

That’s what’s so great about making this instrument, it’s all about sharing, it’s all about community and caring for people through music. That’s the kind of integrity I want to have when making an instrument, and the kind I want to have doing all things. I’m not sure what the future holds, I hope it’s more guitars, but I am learning so much through this process now that I believe will last me a lifetime!

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If you want to know more about Brian, his school, and his Guitars, then click HERE for his website, or HERE to “like” his Facebook Page!

Thanks for reading!

~Daniel