Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been experimenting with making Larson-style purflings for my first guitar challenge based on the Stahl drawings in the latest American Lutherie.

I got a lot of ideas from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=26207

And here is a sample glue-up of the rosette purfling (the body purfling will have more layers in a different pattern). I'm using bloodwood, Peruvian walnut and maple.



As glued up, it is very stiff so won't take the curves of the rosette or the body. For the rosette, I think if I make the center strip thinner, and perhaps increase the angle of the diagonal cut, I can glue it up around a lexan former in a b/w/b/w/b sandwich with some degree of success. Any other suggestions for this appreciated!

But I am stumped as to how to glue it up and be able to bend it around the body.. any help?

Thanks!
Dan

Yep, for my money, Hans Brentrup was always the master at making & using similar stuff. He hasn't posted here in a while but you may be able to ask nicely for tips via his website.
As an idea, maybe leave off an inner b/w/b and both outer b/w/bs & let the diagonals "break" into place, then insert the b/w/bs back into position.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks for the pointer to Hans's web site, Dave. Looks like the clues I was looking for are shown on this page: http://www.brentrup.com/page3/page3.html

Nothing like a challenge for first guitar! Might have been easier to build a Martin clone, but that's not what the world needs right now...

Dan

Dan, Haans had a thread somewhere of his process that I have followed and it works. Install the BWB purflings with a teflon strip ( sized to match your angled custom purflings) in between along with the binding. After glue dries, pull out teflon strip and install each piece of angled purfling that you cut from your stick. They will bend, and if they break, you can still put the pieces in if you can find them. Similar to using radial purfling. It is a bit tedious to get them to cut a consistent size, so you can either cut them a hair small, and discard the ones that are too small, or cut to size and sand the ones that end up too thick. After you have them all installed wick in thin CA.....I shellac the perimeter of the top before I route the bindings, then glue bindings and BWB strips with fish glue. So I am sealed before using any CA.

Chuck

_________________
_________________

Thanks, Chuck - that is definitely the way I am headed. As might be expected, my first attempt at forming a rosette around an inside form was not at all successful. I am going to order some teflon strips, but in the meantime, for the rosette I am going to try routing a groove in some HDPE, lay up the rosette dry and flood with CA.

If that doesn't work, I may just set up an arc cutting jig on the bandsaw and cut the arc into the strips.