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I'm getting ready to bend my first set of sides for a guitar with a florentine cutaway.

When you prep sides for florentines, do you cut the side at the florentine's point before bending? Do you leave a little excess for insurance? Or do you leave the side full length and stop the bend at the point?

Doubles sides, FWIW.

I did a Florentine double cutaway on a thinline jazz box a couple years ago.
I left my sides full length and bent them. Next I fit them to the mold an installed the end block. This helped me determine where the side should be cut. In my case, I was able to use the cutoffs for the cutaways after a little adjustment on the bending pipe.

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I cut the side at the point of the cutaway before bending (draw out your pattern and figure out where that will be .. remember to have enough length in the long side piece to begin with in order to make both pieces) .. then take the cutoff and bend as required so that the grain lines will match up at the cutaway point.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I cut before bending, and leave a little extra. After bending, cut almost to final length, and do the miter and fine tuning by dragging on sandpaper.

I just bend mine on a really really, really thin pipe then sand the curve into a point.

Just kidding, of course.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I've heard of folks simply cutting a normal full-bend side at the desired point and flipping it over. Like Tony, I like the grain to match up, so it means two bends. I do the first with a full side to the cutaway point plus a scosh. Then I commit to the cut and bend the remaining bit the other way. I prefer not to bind the point, so I carefully fine tune the miter on a sand paper board and secure it with binding tape before gluing the joint with CA. The reinforcement of the corner is epoxied in place as soon as the CA has set.


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Ah! Fantastic tip. Thanks, Tim. I plan to bind it, but that's still a great trick to have in the quiver. I have Rod's "Seamless Florentine" thread bookmarked. I'll have to bookmark this alongside it.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I was leaning towards trimming it prior to bending, and this reinforced it.

I always bend the side first. I then cut the side at the point. Hopefully, the cut off piece is long enough to finish the cutaway so the grain can be matched up. Before I cut the side, I bend most of the cutaway piece to as close as I can while still in one piece. It is hard to bend a short length of side wood. When gluing the point together, I use a small V shaped block sanded to shape to glue the inside surface of each piece to. The block makes joining the side easier. Some of the block can be cut away after the two pieces are glued. The use of a block depends on how sharp the point is. If the point is very sharp there is no need for an inside block. I'm sure there are many ways to do this. This is just the way I have always done it.

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Remember to take into account the rise of the top and back as it moves away from the point.
It needs to be wider than the the point.
Don't ask.

B

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