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How many out there make their own purflings? I am planing on doing my first few guitars with the same binding and purfling details. I am planing to glue layers of walnut and maple veneer to a piece of mahogany and cut them on the band saw and then sand them to dimension to make my bindings with side purflings attached. I want to use the same material and detail for my purflings on the plates and will need to make them from the same veneers. I can do it with a table saw, but I waste out as much lumber as I use in that scenario. Hate to lose 50% of any stock. Could do it with the band saw maybe. Definitely less waste from the actual cut but I am afraid the edges will be torn out requiring the strips to be ganged together and the edges planed smooth. Now I'm back to 50% loss. So my question is how do the rest of you do this? I can imagine some type of riving jig with a fence and a utility blade but I don't know how well it would work. Thanks in advance.
Brian

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Check out Burton LeGeyt's documented build thread. One of the first things he does is to show how he makes his own purflings.

Do you have a link Beth?

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=29270

Burton is amazing! I'm sure you'll enjoy the entire thread, but I think the first thing he does is to make and cut the purfs.

I tried making my own purfling...and now I buy it from Grizzly.com at $1.25 per strip when you buy at least 5. It's cool to make your own custom combonations I guess, but for basic BWB its way worth it to buy from Grizzly. I really didnt put my entire heart into making my own strips though. I glued together three pieces of veneer in a BWB sandwich, they were 8inches by 33 inches by 0.020 each piece. I did walnut outsides with a birch inside. I then worked up this half assed violin purfling cutter and thought I could rip strips off of the sandwich and thereby have zero loss to sawing. That is the big issue, making it economical and not losing half the material to the saw blade. I would love to have one of those huge hydraulic paper cutting knife presses, then it would be a snap to guillotine off strips from the sandwich. The problem with the purfling cutter was it would follow a grain line rather than cut straight across the piece. I thought I was really on to something and it all collapsed in front of me at the last operation. Tragic.

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http://www.sixgunguitars.com

Yes, The old Dutchman inside of me can't get past almost 50% of my stock going into the dust bin. I looked at the build mentioned and that is similar to the way we do phenolic backed stuff at work, but we are making strips much wider than what we need for purfling. I have a laminate slitter with carbide wheels, it cuts P-Lam quick and easy with almost 0 loss. I never thought of it until now so when I get a chance I will see what it does to a piece of plain old wood veneer. A friend also suggested a rotary cutter like they use for scrap-booking with a long straightedge, will see how that does also.
Brian

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

A tablesaw and a fret slotting blade reduces waste quite a bit.

Are you using the one from SM?

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

LMI I think. It's the one that requires stiffeners. I feel that it is a better idea then SM because if the blade wears out past re-sharpenability you can get a new one cheap and keep the stiffeners. I use it to cut all my purflings and bindings. My bindings are always made from side offcuts, so I'm only ever cutting .100 at the most. You need a zero clearance insert of course, easy to make. And I use a featherboard as well. I also clamp a piece of MDF on the fence at the same time so the purfling does not slip under the gently rounded fence bottom. It can smoke a bit when cutting lots of oily wood and get a bit gummy but I just scrape it off after and crack a window. But you would be unlikely to have that trouble at all if you're only cutting purflings. I still use the blade for fret slotting as well with no trouble.

Shane has fret saw blades as well. His also require stiffeners. I have been using his, and it's excellent.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks Beth! That is a great thread!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Thought I'd post this for anyone else interested. A laminate slitter really destroys the veneer. A rotary cutter and a straightedge can be made to work, but it takes a lot of care and concentration as the wheel wants to follow the grains, this was more true with maple than walnut. A fret slot blade is on my list of future purchases, so for now I'll just acccept the waste factor and move on.
Brian

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I just read about a hand saw called a veneer saw in a book about tools. They picture a large straight-edged board which is used as both a fence against which to register the cut and also to hold the veneer piece flat. Do you think that would work? I haven't seen one in person, but I assume the kerf would be very thin if it is billed as a "veneer saw". This was in a general woodworking book, not a luthiery text.