#007 - Bolivian Rosewood Tenor

saltytri

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This rosette was recently shown "under construction" in another thread. After routing a channel in the Sitka spruce top...

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...it was glued with CA and then sanded flush with the top and given a protective coat of shellac.

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The back and sides are quartersawn Bolivian rosewood (pau ferro, morado, moradillo). It will probably get a darker binding around the top, an ebony fretboard and a Spanish cedar neck.

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Still working primarily on a couple others so work on this one is on a fill-in basis as time permits but I'm anxious to push it along.
 
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wow David. You are doing incredible work mate. That rosette is stunning. When you taking commissions??? :)
 
Just realized that the third photo was omitted from the original post! So, it's now up.
 
oooh, that third photo was worth the wait. Almost as pretty a back as eugenie's :rolleyes:
 
Wow. Gorgeous work. Love it.
 
Really like how you saved the sapwood. I notice there are two types of builders. One type hates sapwood and if he is forced to use it he dyies it. The other type loves it. Im the other type. Great looking instrument.
 
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Ready to close up the box after cutting notches for the back braces and drilling the hole for the neck bolt.

Oh, yeah, and the label. Almost forgot that!
 
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Making progress. The box is complete with very thin ebony bindings (because I like them) and an application of Smith CPES on the back and sides.

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One of the things I've wanted to do with this build series is to pass on information that might be useful to other junior builders. The use of cabinet scrapers has been an important lesson for me. On this body, it was important to smooth the sides because the wood does not seem to be consistently hard and stiff across the highly varied grain color. Bending brought this out, so that the sides were very slightly uneven across the grain - not enough to readily see but the fingers are as sensitive as a micrometer. Sanding can make a condition like this worse so scraping is the solution. Scraping is also a great way to level the bindings after they are glued on. The scraping itself isn't difficult if you go slowly and carefully. The trick is to get a good edge on the scraper. Here's a link to a method that worked for me the first time:

http://www.joewoodworker.com/scraper.htm

The key is clamping the scraper between two pieces of wood and this makes the process very simple.
 
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Really like how you saved the sapwood. I notice there are two types of builders. One type hates sapwood and if he is forced to use it he dyies it. The other type loves it. Im the other type. Great looking instrument.

I consider sap wood as a premium and use it any opportunity I get. Unfortunately the sap wood is koa is often buggy and unusable. I don't know why anyone would dye it though, never heard of that. It's just as easy to avoid it.

Beautiful uke BTW!
 
Thanks, Chuck! The bits inside the box must look at least a little familiar to you. The photos in the "Process" section of your website have been very helpful. I hope that learning from your construction details isn't in the same category as copying your inlays. :rolleyes:

I, too, like sapwood as a design element. In this case, it seemed solid enough but it got hit with thin CA anyway.
 
There was an inquiry about what happened to this one. Mostly, I've been out of town and also working on a side bender but there has been a little progress. The neck is mostly done and the finish can be started after some final shaping and sanding. The lesson here was to always leave the neck width a bit more than the target width for the fretboard so there is some slack for final adjustment and fitting when the fretboard is glued in place. If you get cocky, like me, and make them the same width, you may discover that while it is easy to do a final trim on the neck width, it is not very easy to add wood if there isn't enough. So, I had the fun of making another neck. Oh well, I do enjoy the carving part. :rolleyes:

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This is just lovely. Surely you don't have any more teacher friends to give ukes to. Maybe it is time to make a friend in Vermont?
 
Thank you, lulu. Actually, I like every Vermonter I've ever met. The only Vermonter I don't like is whoever decided to replace the cows with bears in Burlington. My whole family liked the cows a lot. :D
 
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Oh my goodness that is stunning. I'm in No. Oregon you know...if you need a tester to take one of your projects off your hands or anything...
 
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