Some mandolin progress to share ...

[BadeMillsap]

Back in October I posted about attending a mandolin building camp hosted by noted author and craftsman Roger Siminoff. Now that I have returned to my own workshop and gotten beyond the Christmas "projects" I have made some progress on the construction and thought some of you might be interested in various tasks, jigs, trials and tribulations of lutherie ... the following link will take you to my web log where I have been posting my progress ... if you scroll down to the postings after October 9, 2009 and then work your way up you can see the various tasks I have worked through so far ... lots still left to do but I thought this community might be interested in some of the "jigging" involved ... Link to my web log

Comments and feedback welcome!

[Uncle Cracker]

Very cool!

[leehljp]

That is a great looking Blog and VERY interesting. The detail and precision is awesome!

[ironhat]

I've been following your blog, Bade, and you have cured me of wanting to build a guitar - probably not as that mandolin but stil... . Have you started on the handwork to cut the relief for the binding, where the router wasn't able to go? You must have good eyes, good nerves and a good back!

[BadeMillsap]

It was'nt my intent to be discouraging ....

... actually I get tremendous satisfaction from this hobby ... regarding the handwork on the binding ledge around the scroll ... no I haven't started that yet ... it's a matter of chisels and carving knives and a lot of patience. Many luthiers use no power tools at all (of course the same can be said for woodworkers of all kinds) but I prefer to take advantage of them when I can for uniformity and speed.

I'll continue to post as I make progress ... I have done the headstock inlay and will be posting a few pictures of that on my weblog soon.

Glad you are enjoying the ride ... others are welcome!

Come on in the water is fine!!

[Norm in Fujino]

That's a great blogging story, and some real nice work done on the mandolin. I'll keep on reading as you continue.

[toolbelt diva]

Wow, very impressive. The Yellow Rose of Texas is
laid beautifully. Will try to keep visiting your blog
to view your progress

[crokett]

Wow! That is beautiful. I admire your patience and the courage to make some of those cuts. I don't think I would have been able to risk it. I probably would have found a way to do it by hand.

[cgallery]

Nice work. Can't wait to read more.

[BadeMillsap]

Still in progress ... finish applied ...

So the saga continues ... at this point I have applied the sunburst stain using Transtint dyes and I have hand rubbed 10 coats of Tru-Oil with 0000 steel wool rubbing after every couple of coats ... I'm about ready to call the finish 'applied' and wait the week or 10 days for it to cure enough for final rubout, install the hardware and see what kind of voice it has ...

[LCHIEN]

great finish and wood grain - looks like its on fire!

Must be heck waiting to see what it sounds like?!

[chopnhack]

Phenomenal Bade, how much time do you have into it so far?

[BadeMillsap]

It's hard to count the actual bench hours ...

mostly because I don't even try to keep track ... besides the 20+ bench hours at Roger's camp in October 2009 and the follow on 30 or so up thru January 2010 ... then the really long sabbatical ... and my recent push to finish ... I'd say roughly 70 total bench hours to this point ... after the finish cures with rubout and installation of hardware and setup (which is a significant task in itself just to get the nut and the bridge heights right and the string slots cut properly) I expect another 10 hours more or less ... so fairly ... less than 100 and more than 75 ...

and thank you for the complement!

[dbhost]

I could just stare at that finish for hours. That is really coming out nicely. Do you have the bridge, tuning machines etc... installed yet? I bet you are getting antsy to play that thing and hear the results of your labor...

[BadeMillsap]

Still waiting on finish to cure ...

Thanks DBH ... I actually applied a couple of more light coats of TruOil on the top so I've got until at least 7/19/2011 before I can do the final rubout ... I could have put the hardware on before I applied the stain and heard the voice "in the white" but decided to wait until it was complete ... a bit of a masochistic approach I guess ...

I'll confess here to a fairly big mistake as far as the finish goes ... I should have applied some kind of a wash coat before the stain to force the grain of the wood to "pop" more than it is ... purely a case of getting anxious to see the sunburst after I had gone over the process I was going to follow for several weeks in my head and simply forgetting about the wash coat. So ... the grain of this beautiful quilted big leaf maple is more subdued in the final outcome than it would otherwise be ... by the time I realized it ... it was way too late to do anything but forge ahead ... oh well a perfect excuse to make another one!!

I'll post pictures of the finished project when the day finally dawns ...

Thanks for the interest and kind words!