Official Luthiers Forum!

Good Morning
I am new member to the OLF and looking forward to active participation. I play and am an amateur (
hobbyist) maker of classical/flamenco. guitars. Currently I'm on the in the final stages of my fourth guitar and my first attempt at French Polishing. I would interested in views on the pros and cons on masking the bridge area vs not masking and scraping the bridge area prior to gluing same ( or any other options). I welcome the benefit of your experience.

John V

John for my first 150 or so guitars I did NOT mask off the bridge area.
I just used a 3/4" chisel with the tip burnished like a scraper to remove the finish.
This chisel is only used for this work.
But for the last 100 or so I make a template that is 2mm smaller in every direction of the bridge to be used.
I use scrape pieces of wood no more then 2mm thick for this.
It is held inplace where the brigde will go with double sided tape.
Then I finish as usual and remove the piece that was taped on and proceed to fit the bridge.
I usually remove a bit more finish at the back side of the bridge so as to get a good glue joint there.
Mc

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Mike Collins

John-
Welcome to the OLF!

I'm in the 'don't mask, just finish and scribe and scrape' school.....

There is a ton of useful stuff here at the OLF - the search engine is not 'perfect', but works well for many topics...
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/search.php?keywords=bridge+masking&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Cheers
John

Mc, John

Many thanks. Coincidentally the template option had ocurred to me but I did not pursue for this ocassion. I appreciate your advice and will likely go with the finish and scrape method although I had already used the tape option for the guitar in progress.

John V

I normally scrape the finish. About once a year or so I'll try masking again. For me it isn't any harder to scrape the finish off than it is to remove a mask without damage. It's easier to buff without the mask. If using a mask something the finish has a tendency to get thicker near the mask. I use a heated chisel to scrape the finish off.


Edit/added. There is no right or wrong way. As long as the bridge is securely glued and it looks good it's good.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
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