Pete Howlett
Well-known member
I don't watch much live or terrestrial TV. I do watch loads of YouTube videos of a whole range of things usually involving making something. Perhaps the best of these to get 'luthier useful' ideas from are the ones involving traditional Japanese hand tool techniques. I watched one the other day where the craftsman was using a cutting gauge to create repetitive strips - something I would do with a bandsaw.
So how do I adapt this technique? Since adopting side ports I have developed these so I now glue a cross veneer of 1mm thickness in the patch area of the rib. To make sure this 'sits' perfectly on the lining of the back I fit it slightly oversize sitting on top of the front lining and then, after the patch has 'grabbed' use an LMI 'gramil' to cut it to the form of the back... so the gramil becomes a 'cutting gauge' which it actually is. LMI use a fancy name given to this ancient tool by Sneider the classical guitar builder
So how do I adapt this technique? Since adopting side ports I have developed these so I now glue a cross veneer of 1mm thickness in the patch area of the rib. To make sure this 'sits' perfectly on the lining of the back I fit it slightly oversize sitting on top of the front lining and then, after the patch has 'grabbed' use an LMI 'gramil' to cut it to the form of the back... so the gramil becomes a 'cutting gauge' which it actually is. LMI use a fancy name given to this ancient tool by Sneider the classical guitar builder