taping vs scraping on bindings

[graham darden]

Does anyone prefer taping out bindings prior to color over scraping them after?

[graham darden]

Tapeing does not eliminate scraping, but for me it reduces the time involved to a minimum.

[amowry]

I do both. For me, taping saves time, but there's still a lot of scraping to do to clean up the line along the edge of the wood.

[fscotte]

Taping. Go to Hobby Lobby and look in their plastic models section. They have Japanese brand of tape just for this kind of thing. Several widths down to `1/16" wide.

[graham darden]

Thanks. I use the 3m fine line tape. Believe it or not if you follow the junction of the binding with the rib,3/16 binding,it will fold over and almost cover the binding where it meets the top and the back. Minimal scraping.

[graham darden]

I use Axiom's nitro bindings.

[sunburst]

First, consider that I scraped many miles of binding when I worked at "the factory". As Andrew says, "there's still a lot of scraping to do to clean up the line along the edge of the wood", and that is the slow part. I can scrape the main part of the binding (not the edges) much faster than I can tape it, so rather than saving me time, taping bindings takes me longer.

[HoGo]

First, consider that I scraped many miles of binding when I worked at "the factory". As Andrew says, "there's still a lot of scraping to do to clean up the line along the edge of the wood", and that is the slow part. I can scrape the main part of the binding (not the edges) much faster than I can tape it, so rather than saving me time, taping bindings takes me longer.

Same here, though I tape the bone points and joints of bindings (and often seal them with thin CA brushed on to close pores or any tiny crevices) to prevent any stain getting in.

[graham darden]

Hogo,
Awesome idea with the CA. Thank you for sharing.
Graham

[HoGo]

Hogo,
Awesome idea with the CA. Thank you for sharing.
Graham

Be carefull with this. you don't want to get it on the wood. I usually put a tiny drop on the bone and spread it with exacto blade or edge of toothpick slowly over whole surface of bone and neighboring joints with binding and then cover with tape for more security. I would advice to do this to the inside surface of the bone before gluing it to mandolin filling the bone completely, lightly sand flat and apply one more thin layer... and perhaps seal the wood surface with HHG or shellac as well and gluing surfaces of binding inside with gel CA. Scraping it clean (or sometimes I use tiny sanding blocks) can be more time consuming but worth it IMO.
In the past it happened to me that the dark color somehow got into the bone via the side wood or any tiny crevices under the bindings and through the bone-wood joint... I was doing some extra dark sunburst and using more alcohol to blend it and it found a way inside... I found quite good way of repair places in bone using drop of CA on offcut of the same bone (color match) and with tip of exacto blade within the drop scrape the bone till a thick paste forms and quickly apply it to excavated damaged spot and press firmly, if you apply activator immediately the CA will turn milky and not too transparent so repair can be less visible (before repair I usually just drill or scrape out minimal amount of bone at the spot with tip of the exacto blade)
And I often seal the joints of bindings with drop of CA as well... I use ivoroid mud and tight fit but sometimes there can be a bubble or pore inside the miter invisible to naked eye from outside and the color will find the way from inside. I try to go dryer with pad when I'm staining near miters...

[sunburst]

When I used bone points I sealed them with lacquer. I keep small bottles of thickened lacquer (just leave the lid loose so it evaporates down a little) for drop filling and the like, and it works well for sealing bone. It scrapes off very easily after staining.
I now use ivoroid plastic for points. It solvent-welds to the ivoroid binding, it does not have pores like bone, it scrapes clean just like binding, it color-matches ivoroid binding better than bone, it resists being knocked off of the instrument from impact a little better than bone because it can absorb more shock and it is locked into the binding, and it resists finish chips from impact better than bone. I know bone is traditional, but sometimes I prefer other options when I think they are better than traditional options.