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I've just finished a couple of rosettes and I'm really happy with the results. I know they're fairly basic compared to the rosettes some of you have created, but I'm excited! Here they are - a bubinga rosette in a sitka top and a sapele rosette in an englemann top.





Now I'm looking for some inspiration in the rosette department! I was wondering if some of you would mind sharing some of your rosette pics?

Rob

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Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
http://www.flindallguitars.com
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Nice clean work!

Complex is not always better. You have a beautifully simple design, perfectly executed. It doesn't get any better than that.

Brent

Wow - thanks for the kind responses guys. That makes me feel good and gives me confirmation I'm on the right track. I should have uploaded an overall pic - so here we go :

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Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
http://www.flindallguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/FlindallGuitars

Nice and clean. Those are elegant rossettes, they hold their own around here.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Excellent!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Very nice, congrats! My first ones were supposed to look close to that, but I had so much trouble that I ended up having to buy new top wood to start over.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Nice work Rob. Nice and clean. Here's a few of my current projects. Walnut/Abalone on Lutz Birchbark(underside) on Cedar IRW with maple dust filled lettering. Wedding Anniversary Present. The top one is getting finish. The bottom 2 are a little rough yet. Need final sanding and such. Maybe you can find some inspiration. Jason

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

I'm only on my first two builds and have to admit to ordering my rosettes through the mail; everthing else is from scratch, but I wasn't ready to try my own, I was just worried about getting them inlayed. Your rosettes are excellent and they fit extremely well; the quality of the photos is really great. Thanks for the post, it's a motivation to some of us for sure; think I'll try something "simple?" next time.

Simple, clean, good proportional balance, very sweetly executed!

Great work!

Here's one of my latest: Ambonia burl and spalted Maple.



-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

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Those are really beautiful, Robert! Simple and elegant. How did you cut the channels to get such clean lines?

nice clean work....

Lovely!
I much prefer all-wood rosettes like this.

Look at some of Michihiro Matsuda and Raymond Kraut's designs. They're certainly challenging!

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

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CharlieT - a 1/16" downcut spiral bit was used for the inside and outside rings. I used 0.010" thick pieces of binding in a b/w/b/w/b pattern. The 5 strips of binding fit nice and tight in the 1/16" groove. No fuss, no muss. I'm paranoid about crushing the edge of the spruce so I take my time. I did something similar with the thick b/w/b on either side of the wood rosette. I did discover a trick though. When you rout out the ring on the outside edge of the wood rosette, go in a counter clock wise direction. When you rout out the inside ring, rout in a clock wise direction. This ensures no tear out of the spruce. Ask me how I discovered that.....

Mark Tripp - I seriously need to know how you make rosettes like that! I've seen similar rosettes like yours on other guitars here in the forum and I absolutely love them. I just don't know what the order of operations is in making a broken rosette like that with the square ends and cross black stripes. Please divulge!

Robbie_McD - thanks!

Jason - looking good!

PeterF - I'll definitely have a looksee at those designs.

mkellyvrod - these style rosettes are actually quite easy to make. I make the wood rosette piece first by cutting two circular grooves in a 6x6" block of wood. I take that over to the band saw and resaw the 6x6" piece, plopping the wood rosette out. I then cut the grove in my top and glue the wood rosette in place. You don't need to have an exact fit at this point. I then take my Dremel and put the bit over the edge where the wood rosette mates with the spruce and cut the channels for the b/w/b on either side of the wood rosette. Actually, I took pictures of the process when I made the rosettes - this might be easier to show than explain :

Here are the two wood rosettes that I cut out like I described above


I cut a channel for the wood rosette and glue it in place. If you look closely you can see that it's not a perfect fit.


This photo better illustrates the fit. I've started cutting the channel on the inside edge of the rosette which cleans up the wood rosette and erases that terrible looking fit.


And now the outside channel


And now the thin channels on either side of the wood rosette


Plunk in your bindings, glue, glue, glue.....


Scrape, scrape, scrape......


And voila!


Ok Mark Tripp - now that I've shown you mine, you've got to show me yours! Lmao.
I hope that wasn't too long winded of a response.

Rob

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Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
http://www.flindallguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/FlindallGuitars

Hey Robert - thanks for sharing that! The tip about the different direction for the inside and outside edges is brilliant.

Rob,

I'm doing a new rosette of this style very soon. I will try to document the process thoroughly, and get it posted in a couple of weeks. It's not that different from what you are already doing, (which looks great btw!) but you are correct about the importance in the order of operations, which varies a bit from rosette to rosette. Small, very sharp bits are critical. I have a collection of end mills ranging from .010" to .060" in .010" increments, and also made some micro chisels out of old nut-slot files.

I knew Michi and Ray from my time in the Bay area, and give them both credit for this style (of which I am a complete newbie). If you like this kind of stuff definitely check out their work!

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

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