Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone used the gramil that LMI sells for cutting binding channels by hand. I am very spooked about the process of using a router or a dremel. Even if I just used it to score the wood before I cleaned it out with a router. I would like to develop a building process where I use mostly hand tools because I enjoy working with them.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

The Schneider gramil is an excellent tool. After sealing I use mine to score before routing the channel and also to complete the channel where it stops short near the mortise. You can do the entire guitar i'm sure because that is what the tool is for, but the secret of it's use is sharp blade and VERY light cuts especially when establishing the lines.

Cheers

Kim

Yes, very sharp and very light at first. Sealing Spruce with thin Hide glue or Shellac helps to even out the difference between hard and soft grains - to a small extent.
I don't have the LMI but I do have the Sloane and a homemade one. Both work fine.
I would also advise a few practice runs, either in off cuts or by setting the cutter much shallower than the final depth of cut.

Building guitars is just a hobby for me and I'm still relatively new to it, but I think the advice above is sound. I used the LMI gramil on my last effort and it worked pretty well. I did use my router to do a clean final pass. It plan to use this combination in the future--unless my gramil skills improve enough that I can put that noisy router away for good.

Practice on scrap, go slow and have fun.

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George :-)

A bit of candle wax on the leg of the cutter makes for a smoother ride. Not a huge difference but I'd rather have it as a weapon than go without. You can also refine things with a shaped sanding block - but this will only correct extremely minor discrepancies.

For many years in the public shop in Williamsburg,we had to cut the bindings in by hand. It works quite well. I always made the binding cutters myself.

Do you plan to use only the gramil or the gramil and a chisel?. I am thinking of the binding on the rib side

just thinking out loud here
does anyone use a 90 corner chisel for a final pass
to even things out ?

I don't own a corner chisel, so I don't know if it would be helpful for this. The process is straight forward enough without one, though. Just put on some nice music, pour youself some of your favourite beverage, and go to town!

Here’s a home made purfling tool, which I made according to the first Sloane book, years ago. Tin can shims under the blade is the adjustment mechanism, let’s just say it is not the quickest tool to adjust...







It works, though. I now use it on the areas that my mechanized set up does not reach, but I have used it for whole instruments before. I have different ones set up for different cuts.








Chiseling out the waste.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin