Rosettes in the UK?

mikeyb2

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Does anyone know a good source for herringbone tenor rosettes? I'm having trouble finding any on 'tinternet'. I can find sopranos and concerts but not tenors.
Also, can a concert rosette( assume to be made of wood), be stretched out to fit a tenor diameter? I thought maybe soaking in water and fitting into a similar size channel until dry. Ok there might be a gap, which could be covered by the fretboard. Thanks, Mike.
 
Buy guitar purfling strips and bend them to your required radius.
 
I've done both tenor and soprano herringbone rosettes from guitar purfling by cutting a rosette sized channel in a piece of scrap hardwood, soaking the herringbone in a baking tray of boiling water for about a minute and then pressing the herringbone into the channel. Allow to dry with a weight on top before gently prising out. Tenors are usually OK, but in smaller sizes the herringbone strip will almost certainly de-laminate as it is coerced into the channel. If that happens I finish bending the herringbone into the channel, wait for it to dry and then carefully wick in some CA glue. The slippage between the laminations isn't that apparent in the finished article. Here is a soprano made in this way.

P3080254.jpg
 
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It's generally pretty easy to bend herringbone purfling into a tight radius because of the small segments that make it up. "They" will tell you not to use water because it could delaminate with the heat. (Sometimes that works for you and sometimes , against.) Delamination will cause the pattern to misalign. Personally, I've only used a slight mist of water while bending and it's been fine. The only problem you might run into is that the purfling might not stay flat as you bend it around the pipe. In that case, place the rosette in a rosette channel of the same size that you routed into a piece of scrap wood and place a household iron on top of the rosette to flatten it.
 
I've routed the same size of channel in some MDF and then coaxed the material around and into it with the use of a mist of water and a hair dryer or heat gun. In tight circles the material most often will want to curl on you so this method really helps keep it flat.
 
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