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I've shown this around a lot of places, but I don't think it has been posted here.

This is my giant ball vise for carving arched plates. It has several different fittings so I use it for...

As a side note, I always save all of the offcuts until the build is finished; you never know what is waiting to destroy all the hard work. Torrified spruce vs hungry router bit: a bit of creative...

Back to a bit of mandolin nerdiness. Here are a few in progress photos of the F5, uncleaned burn marks and all. It is one of my internal open scroll models. I did a big workshop at the Guild of...

Royal Blackwood is torrefied Purpleheart (Peltogyne spp.) One source, at least for guitar fretboards is: https://alliedlutherie.com/collections/fingerboards/products/royal-blackwood. It is not the...

It’s been a while since I updated this thread but the project is coming along well. This weekend I was able to take my top that is still slightly over final thickness, with tone bars that are still...

Most important is understanding grain direction in the piece and forces that you apply. Wood (nearly) always breaks on the layer on the outside of the bend when it is stretched above its limit (which...

I wouldn't try over .090" most likely. Bending gets more difficult as thickness goes up. Also, concentrate you efforts in the flat places and avoid the kinked places. If the piece starts to kink, let...

Those portions of lifted grain look like the wood was too wet, and/or bending was progressing too slowly and the wood at the outside of the bend got too hot.
It is a delicate dance, but if we can...

What is temperature of your iron? You need 160-190 degrees Celsius so water turns into steam immediately upon contact and will hold that temperature even with longer/repeated exposure. Halogen bulb...

I think you need to go thinner. For ukulele sides (similar bend radiuses) in tricky wood I thickness to nearer .070 inches (1.8 mm). Unfortunately that's a bit late for these sides.

My other...

I been using a cooked 1704 formula for years. The polymerization caused by heating it is the key. Either form of shellac works fine; just make sure to decant all the junk out from the bottom of the...

All I can say for sure is that blonde dewaxed shellac just "works" and gives a great finish. It is certainly delicate compared to harder synthetic finishes, but if you look after it it ages just...

I remember a post on Maestronet about someone trying button lac in 1704 without success. It might be that the wax content of seed lac is part of what makes 1704 varnish what it is. I don't know what...

Medullary rays are present in the wood regardless of whether they are visible at the surface or not, ray fleck is the figure at the surface of the wood caused by exposure of medullary rays. So, no...

Installment II:

The Griffith Loar.

I first played this mandolin while it was on vacation in Idaho during the 1990s when I was living in McCall. It had everything I seemed to need and more, in...

A few more.
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The Griffith tribute is finally strung up.
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Varnish and TO top coat done on the Griffith tribute.
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I have several from Pinegrove - I believe our old late friend and cafe member, Ivan Kelsall had some input into their original designs - and they will make up anything withinreason you can dream up...

I just bought one from Pinegrove leather......excellent

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Just finished an octave mandolin (560mm scale 355mm body width) and a mandolin (365mm scale 292mm body width)

Another bit of Griffith tribute progress:
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What John does is how most of the old Gibsons were made. Two angled pieces of binding instead of one wide strip as is common with recent makers.

It's just the way I do it. I can extend the body bindings across the slot where the cross piece goes, then cut it so that the binding material fits tightly. In the case of celluloid binding, like in...

Cleaning up that inside corner is where the pocket knife gets used. I do slightly chamfer the corners of the rim to avoid interference, but not a lot and apparently it doesn't show much in internet...