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I am building my first guitar from an LMI kit (OM style) and have a few questions about bending rosewood sides by hand. I have a few pieces of practice sides from Stewart Macdonald to play with first, but wanted to get some advice from you all before hand.

1) I have read up on this topic in a couple of books and the internet. Some recommend soaking the rosewood in water for a period of time before bending while others recommend to simply spray down the wood just prior to placing it on the bending iron.

2) Is 2mm a good thickness to bring the rosewood down to as I have read?

3) Has anyone ever thinned the wood more around the waist (or cut away which I will not incorporate on this one) to give it an easier bend? Or is this completely unnecessary and just may lead to problems later in the build process.

I would greatly appreciate any input you all have.

Jonathan,
Good choice for your first build. Rosewood bends very nicely. It was my first choice also.
1 - Spray just before bending. I don't think soaking wood is a good idea for instruments.
2 - 2mm is fine. Don't go over that, and use an accurate measuring tool to determine thickness. If you are just a quarter mm over it can make a big difference on bending.
3 - You can selectively thickness the sides to aid in bending. It is common. Without a sharp bend or cutaway you won't need to - especially if it is a dread.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Hi, welcome!

Yes, yes and yes; no need to soak the wood, 2 mm is fine, you can thin the sides where you have shrap bends.

Are your practice sides rosewood (I aussume EIR), too? If so, that's good, because it is about the easiest bending wood you'll find, so no need for extra thinning for moderate bends such as found on an OM. Just take your time, let the wood get good and hot while you rock it slowly over the pipe, don't force anything, just pay attention to how it reacts to the heat. At some point the wood will get nice and pliable, and if you gently coax it along it will pretty much bend itself, you'll see.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

all above is good.

don't heat a single strip and expect to get a smooth curve, rock the side on the pipe to heat a wider area and the curve will be continuous rather than like a 50p coin

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Great! Thanks for the advice.

but if the wood is damp then the water boiling keeps it below the scorch point of the wood.....

something to do with physics, but it stops the fish at the bottom of the pond freezing too!!

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Are you using one of these bending irons?
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... es#details
If so, I recommend working the wood against the flattest side most of the time, only using the tighter radius parts when needed. I clamp mine to the bench on its side, so the flatter side is up. As has been said, you've got to heat up a wide area of the side to make a successful bend.

Also, I have recently begun experimenting with keeping a wet rag draped over the iron and working the wood on top of that. I'd read about this method but never tried it until recently. I like it a lot so far. I keep the iron on almost the highest setting. Every minute or so, I spritz the rag with water (getting it very wet each time). I'm not spritzing the wood itself at all. This method seems to make it impossible to scorch the wood and keeps the moisture/steam going nicely. Despite the fact that it seems to make the iron cooler, plenty of heat gets into the wood and I can hold the side on the iron for as long as it takes to soften it sufficiently for even a very tight bend, without fear of scorching. I've scorched the rag very slightly, but surprisingly little considering it does get dry on the inside sometimes between being re-wetted.

For the rag I'm using a doubled piece of old flannel sheet (after experimenting with a couple other things), and that is working quite well.

Good luck!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hi Jonathan, welcome to the OLF!

Bending by hand is a good skill to learn, but if you're going to make more than a slack handful of guitars, you might want to consider investing in a bending machine that uses stainless steel slats and electrical heating blankets (the Fox style side bending machine being the most prevelent). I never looked back after building mine. I still keep my Stewmac bending iron around though, just in case I need to tweek a binding or side (haven't had to yet, but you never know when it'll be needed!).

I'm looking forward to seeing your first build. Don't forget to post pictures - we like to see build-logs (blogs ).

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Congratulations on starting your new guitar.
Here is a video you might find useful on side bending by hand.
Happy Building!