Official Luthiers Forum!

For those of you that are placing a thin maple strip behind tortoise binding to make the contrast of the dark and light more visible/ how are you avoiding causing a white purfling affect at the top? What thickness of maple are you using?

I did one recently with a layer of .010" thick cream colored plastic behind the tortiseshell. For the show edge on the top and back, I incorporated it into my purfling scheme. On the back, the cream simply became another line in the multi-line purfling. On the top I was using a strip of store bought marquetry which had white lines for the border. I did not want a double white line (actually a cream next to the white) so I scraped off the white border. The difference between the cream border and the white was barely noticable and the marquetry came out looking balanced.

Thx Barry

Your welcome, Michael.

Thats a tough one Michael,

Profile the rims, bind them in maple, attach the top and then bind in tortoise?

Steve

I would't recommend that approach. The joint will show especially on the back where the edge of the back plate would show through.