Wildestcat
Well-known member
A picture is worth a thousand words ...
That went well!
- Thread starter Wildestcat
- Start date
Gammo
Well-known member
Sell it to a modern art gallery. Probably get $100k for that.
mikeyb2
Well-known member
Ouch! looks like you're having the same kind of luck(bad) I've been having recently, Paul.
Dan Gleibitz
Well-known member
I admire your persistence!
What are you bending there, ebony?
What are you bending there, ebony?
OP
OP
Wildestcat
Well-known member
Indeed so. I progressively tried every trick and combination I know - dry, wet, soaked in fabric conditioner, hot iron, hotter iron, hottest possible iron, wrapped in wet linen, with backing slat, without backing slat, all four taped together, taped in twos, singly .... all ended in disaster. I've hand bent ebony before on a couple of guitars and a tenor uke without any real issue - difficult yes, but it didn't break. I think I was sold a batch of binding with a poor grain orientation. Very hard to tell where the grain runs in ebony! Anyway after wrecking the ebony, thankfully my prospective client has now settled on Cherry instead 
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ksquine
Well-known member
I wonder if Jackson Pollock ever worked in ebony binding
Beau Hannam Ukuleles
Well-known member
How thick are those?? Usually bindings are 2mm, or .080"
I'm sure Beau's right about .080" being the usual thickness. My way of doing things is to use thinner bindings of about .062". I've never had a problem with ebony at that thickness but maybe that's because I haven't been sold bad stuff like you were. With wood that isn't figured, I bend on the machine and then touch up on the pipe and it all works out with only occasional disasters.
Anyway, sorry to see you had that problem!
Anyway, sorry to see you had that problem!
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Wow, didn't realize the difficulty making binding. I had this done recently by Bruce Wei Arts in Vietnam with spalted mango binding, I wonder how many pieces they had to go through.
OP
OP
Wildestcat
Well-known member
Hi Beau. They were the normal 2 mm x 6 mm. All the breaks were at an angle of about 45 degrees across the width, hence my suspicions about the grain.
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OP
OP
Wildestcat
Well-known member
To be fair it isn't usually a problem - this is the first time in binding 28 instruments of varying types and sizes (including three with ebony) that I've ever had a non-recoverable issue. Having said that, your spalted mango looks quite a challenge!
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