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I'm building a EI rosewood sides & back/sinker redwood top guitar with curly maple binding. I just scraped all my binding/purflings flush.

What's the best way to keep the curly maple bindings clean before finish (I'm going to French polish, ultimately), so the rosewood and redwood don't end up staining it?

When I did some sanding (after the scraping), the rosewood color got onto the bindings. I suppose, when it comes time to prepare the guitar for finishing (a long way down the road, as I haven't even started the neck yet), I should scrape it all, right? And then shellac the bindings before I put shellac onto the rosewood and redwood?

Any tips would be welcome -- I've never worked with such a light binding before.

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

Year ago Jose Oribe wrote that the light purflings were coated with lacquer with a fine brush prior to finishing the guitar.

Actually the issue is sealing the Rosewood so the solvents don't mix with the resin and oil to make a very effective stain. So a good way to prevent discoloring the light binding is to seal the entire instrument using a spray -- rattle cans will work just fine you could use shellac. Once the Rosewood is sealed its less likely that color will be pulled out and transferred to the light wood. No doubt some binding scraping will be necessary too.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I also recall advice on French polish shellac to take many bits of rags and to use a fresh piece with shellac to trace over lighter areas to seal them without dragging across the darker woods. Then throw the piece out after one pass or small area and use a fresh piece.

Thanks, all! I guess, then, the best plan of attack would be to, when the time comes to prepare for finishing, to first scrape everything nice and clean, then spray everything with shellac (I have, in the past, used a Preval sprayer successfully to do such a job), then start my French polish process....

By the way, I've been posting this build on Facebook, and then inserting my Facebook posts onto my website. Here's the link to my website posts: http://theamateurluthier.com/retirement/htmlpages/2015taylor.html

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

Ken has far more experience than I do so take my comments with the limited experience I have.

For maple accents I tend to seal the maple with several coats of shellac (just wiped on) before sanding. This way when I sand the side wood I'm also sanding the shellac off the rosewood which shouldn't deposit the rosewood dust to the maple. That's what I did on the imbuia guitar you followed on FB.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I'm not sure I quite understand what you've said here, Rod --- does this mean you also seal the rosewood with the shellac as well?

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

Having never done this - mind you - this idea just came to me.

Could you seal them separately? Mask off the binding with blue tape, pad a few passes of shellac onto the rosewood. Then tape off the rosewood, make a few passes over the maple?

I think I remember Tom paying special attention to the binding in the "Sealing" videos from the French Polish course for the same reason, but not entirely sure without looking.

Yeah, James...I just looked at Tom's section on the shaping, sanding, cleaning (naptha), and sealing. When he gets to the sealing stage, he seals the binding/purfling first, followed by the rest. So...now I guess I'll scrape it all clean, then sand each part separately (the problem comes when you sand both the rosewood and maple together --- that's where the staining came), then do the cleaning and sealing separately. Or, maybe, if I scrape well enough, I won't even need to sand further?

But I still have plenty of time to figure this part out. After the bevel, I still need to make the neck. Only after all that's done will I be ready to do all the finish steps....

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

If your scraper is really sharp and you do a good job you won't need to sand...

As for my suggestion, just use a q-tip and seal the maple all around first... Just the maple.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I remember seeing a YouTube where someone was sealing light bindings with clear nail polish (yep, using the little brush in the cap and everything). Can't find it now, but I think clear nail polish is just nitrocellulose lacquer. I would guess any of the usual sealing suspects with a small brush and some patience would work.

I scrape and sand carefully so as not to drag any color from the oily dark woods onto my light bindings or purfs, clean with a tack rag. I wipe on my spit coat with a clean paper towel around the bindings first. Keep the stroke long and flowing and "in line" only at the edges, if that makes sense.....One wipe and I change paper towels. I run 3-4 coats around the edges like this about 15 minutes apart and let it dry before doing the main surfaces in the same fashion. If you are doing a traditional pumice pore fill you will need to come back and very carefully sand the bindings back to the spit caot to remove the slight coloring that gets pulled over them.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks, Brian! Great tips...

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

That's how I do it since I saw it being done that way at Kenny Hill's guitar shop.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Same here, only I use a small artist brush for the bindings.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Hey Kathy, here's a completely counterintuitive take on the process. I did it once before I knew better and was horrified, but the customer loved it.

Sand the rosewood and don't worry about the dust getting into the maple. It tends to stick in the vertical grain (the curl). Clean up the horizontal grain and put your finish on. It really makes the figure pop.

Steve

You know, Steve, I was wondering about that myself....It might not be a bad idea. I think I'll try it with some scrap binding and rosewood, sand it, and see how it looks with finish on. Who knows, it might even make the combinations of woods complement each other nicely, rather than being such a stark contrast.

Do people do this purposely very often (or at all)????

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

Contrasting woods are a challenge. If you do sand, don't sand any finer than 220. The dust from finer grits really lodges in the pores. As Brian indicated, the first applications have to be a quick pass in one direction, then let dry thoroughly. For bindings, you can index the pad on the corner, and make a pass all the way around. Some designs are more difficult.

Lots of great advice here so I just wanted to say Hi to you Kathy and wish you the very best of New Years too!

Your build Eric?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.