Could this be a suitable rosette?

This would be my very first rosette. This is to be the top to one of my currently being built Aphid "Mini" ukes. I have been sort of intimidated by rosette and especially binding. I have yet to muster the courage to try to do a binding, but decided to try my luck at a rosette. I'm sure this isn't "tradition" method, but I do know that many rosettes and bindings for that matter are made of plastics. I had done a little bit of inlay work with abalone and MOP, but nothing quite this delicate. So, what I used was simply epoxy. I routed the channel, then filled the channel with epoxy I colored with pastel dust. It came out the milky whitish color I was looking for, but wonders if anyone knows of someone using epoxy like this? No, this isn't a "fine" crafted instrument, and no I wouldn't suspect a fine instrument to have an epoxy rosette, but, I guess what I am asking is anyone think of any reason not to use it on something like this?

The biggest concert I would have would be shrinkage. However, the epoxy I use is an aircraft rated (commonly used in high dollar RC aircraft construction), and it does not have any shrinkage because frankly, that could cause a $20,000 1/4 scale aircraft to plummit into a crowd, or residence. So, standards are high for this type of epoxies. Just saying, because that would be the first thing I would be concerned about (shrinkage, not my mini uke to fly into an unsuspecting crowd.. )

I kinda like that this way, I can make any color rosette that you can find in an art pastel collection.

Comments?

Tudorp...Try "Milliput"..it comes in black ,white, teracotta, and silver grey + other shades... and sets like rock..I've used it on inlay's.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...l1313&_nkw=milliput&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Will look that up.. Thanks..

Tudorp, I know you're experimenting here, but that just looks plain... well... plain.

On smaller instruments I think rosettes can look a bit busy. Personally, I'd rather see nice wood without a cheezy rosette.

lol.. I hear ya. Loud and clear. I tend to be with ya tho on a nice looking piece of wood. I would prefer to look at the wood. A few have mentioned if I do them with inlay, or a rosette. I have to remind them how small these things are, and I doubt they plan to take it on the road touring, lol.. I guess they think with a rosette, it looks more grown up? hahhah.. I have always loved the clean raw but rich look of the vintage no frill Martins to be honest. Thanks for the input, that's what I'm after..

itsme said:

Tudorp, I know you're experimenting here, but that just looks plain... well... plain.

On smaller instruments I think rosettes can look a bit busy. Personally, I'd rather see nice wood without a cheezy rosette.

Click to expand...

An uke without a rosette simply looks unfinished to me. Just my opinion.
As far as the dust goes, Kanile'a does it with sand, I've done it before with ivory dust and I know a few builders here who fill in the rosette channel with colored epoxies. (Not my cup of tea though.)

I like em too, but as long as they are subtle. I don't want a rosette to be the 1st thing noticed. They should kinda be in the background, or like a frame, it's there, and enhances, but ya never really notice it because your looking at the picture. This is a little uke, and I can see how itsme says they can make a small one look too busy. This one is only 1.5mm wide, and I wouldn't do anything bigger on these little ukes.. But, I like em with or without, (with only if they are subtle)

Why do I suddenly want to see a flying RC uke now?

Thats an old hobby of mine I retired many years ago. But, I have seen flying lawn mowers, so a Uke isn't a far stretch.. lol

The first instrument I made (a really crappy guitar), I ran one of those circle cutters with the scalpel blade around and wiped dark coloured wood putty into the slice. It did the job but looked the part.

I too am not a fan of rosette-less ukes. It's got to be simple though. A simple rosette is not that hard to achieve.

Buy some purfling.
Get a router bit that matches the width.
drill a 1/8th hole in the base of your lam trimmer.
use the 1/8th bit as a pivot to swing the lam trimmer in a circle.
route the channel
de-burr the bottom edges of the purfling with a couple of wipes on sandpaper.
cut the purfling to length.
whack some hide glue in the channel
tap the purfling into the channel.
pat youself on the back.

That's how i do it anyway. I think it would probably be quicker than mixing the epoxy. Plus epoxy's bad for you. Plus I seem to have to mix minimum 10g batches of epoxy to get the chemical reaction going, so I'd throw most of a batch out.

Timbuck said:

Tudorp...Try "Milliput"..it comes in black ,white, teracotta, and silver grey + other shades... and sets like rock..I've used it on inlay's.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...l1313&_nkw=milliput&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Click to expand...

Milliput is easy to use and Ken is right, it sets hard as rock with no shrinkage (beavis and butthead, where have you gone?). I used to use it to make didge mouthpieces. You can sand it easily. Nontoxic is a plus. There's another epoxy that had a greater range of colors and I'll search for it and get back to this thread.

Found it. It's called apoxie sculpt. I never used it, but some didge folks had and seemed to like it.
http://www.avesstudio.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=28&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=4&vmcchk=1&Itemid=4

You can get artists' powdered pigments from art suppliers. More colors and you don't have to grind them up.

For pigments, I have used on many different projects is artist pastels. You can buy a tray of them with dang near every color in the spectrum for about $10. I simply scrape them with an x-acto to get as much powder as I need to color or tint something. I use them all the time in my model rail road hobby to weather railroad rolling stock, buildings, track etc. Been using it for years because it works great in allot of different methods. I have been using the same tray of pastels for about 10 years now.

I've tried to make my own inlay materials, something that would have the working characteristics of recon stone. There are just some colors and textures that are not commercially available. I've tried polyester resin, I've tried Sculpy, both less than satisfactory. I'm tempted to try the apoxie (thanks!) and there is also this product from Rio Grande. Maybe someone has experience with it.

http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea...mels+and+Resins&category|cat_114|256=Colores™