Acornhouseworkshop’s Blog

The two builds this summer will be slightly challenging because, while they will both be small jumbo guitars, using the same molds, one will be a 12-fret design using a 25.5″ scale (customer specs), while the other will be a 14-fret design using a 24.75″ scale (my preference). Btw, 12- and 14- fret refers to the fret where the neck joins the body. Before the 1930′s, most guitars were 12-frets, nowadays, most guitars are 14-frets, but there is a growing demand for the earlier design, especially among fingerstyle players. In addition to these design differences, the bracing patterns are different. In addition to moving the soundhole and changing the x-brace angles to accomodate the change in the bridge location for the 12-fret  guitar, the custmer wants a symmetrical tonebar brace pattern similar to one used by Larrivee guitars, and similar to the one that I use in “The Beast”, illustrated in an earlier post. I will be using a typical asymmetrical lower tonebar design for my guitar. Both guitars will get a parabolic shape to the braces, rather than a scalloped shape.

The braces are milled from well quartered sitka spruce stock, the bottoms are arches as needed, and each brace gets glued into place. After they have set, I carve the to reduce their mass, while leaving as much height as I can for maximum strength. My favorite tools for the job are my 1/2″ Stanley 720 paring chisel and a Chinese style ebony finger plane.

Lots of curved shavings make me want to get a hamster (although I fear the cats would look on it more as a snack!) When everything is carved, and I am getting a good tone from the top, they get sanded smooth. Maple bridge plate are glued as well, and the soundboards are ready for the sides. You can sees the two different bracing patterns (and some layout lines from earlier incarnations if you look close.)

The diamonds are added for a little extra seam support where there isn’t any brace. You can really see the different soundhole and bridge plate positions for the two different designs.

Compare and contrast!

Before bracing can begin on the soundboards, rosettes have to be inlayed. (Its much easier working on a flat surface than a slightly arched one that doesn’t lie flat.) I use a small router with a circle cutting base and the appropriate sized router bits to do mine. For the commissioned guitar, I am using bloodwood and blackwood to divide the rosette into four quarters, representing the four major parts of the heart. (The gentleman commissioning the guitar is a heart transplant recipient who goes by the nickname ‘Tinman”. He intends to use the guitar to encourage others going through a transplant.) After sketching out my design, I milled the wood to approximate shape, and used a chisel to fit the pieces tight together.

These then get glued into the routed channel with liquid hide glue.

Then, to frame the woods, I rout a thin channel on either side and glue in some black-white-black purfling strips. The purfling strips are purchased premade using a dyed cardboard type material that is flexible and stays white and black no matter the finish or age. After glueing these get scraped flush. Then everything gets sanded smooth. (There’s a couple of areas on the blackwood that are depressed, and there is some glued reflecting back in the picture. These will disappear after the finish sanding and finishing process.)

It doesn’t show as well in the pic due to the lighting, but the bloodwood is truly vibrant against the whiteness of the Italian Spruce. (The rough bit at the top will be covered by the fingerboard, so its a good area to make test cuts with the router.)

The second rosette, which will be for my personal guitar, will have a fairly standard design of paua abalone in between two rings of purfling. The purfling channels are routed and the the purfling is glued and then scraped.

Then a channel for the abalone is routed and the abalone pieces are prepared. They come pre arched, but the ends need to be mitered to provide a seamless ring with the 15 pieces of abalone. This is done at the sander with a simple jig. When everything is ready, the pieces are selected to minimize any abrupt changes of pattern between pieces. The abalone and border purfling are glued in together using extended cure epoxy. Then everything is scraped and sanded flush to a sparkly shine.

Brace yourself for what’s coming next!

I’ve begun my latest guitar build(s). I’ve been commissioned to build a small jumbo sized guitar for fingerstyle playing. At the same time, I’ll be working on a second one for my own use, and as an example to show prospective customers. These guitars will also be adding to my skillset, since they will have a Venetian cutaway. (A Venetian cutaway is a cutaway with a rounded upper bout, allowing easier access to the higher frets. A Florentine cutaway has a sharp angle to the resultant ‘horn’.)

After making the molds, (which because of the cutaway design, require two different sides), I got the bending pipe heated up and ready to go.

The customer ordered a back and sides of osage orange, and I will be using Oregon flame myrtle for mine. In order to warm up, I bent the myrtle sides first, starting with the non-cutaway side. No big problems, although you do have to be careful when there is a big curl in the wood not to let it bend on an angle, which it really wants to do. Got it bent and clamped in the mold fairly quickly. The myrtle bends much like walnut, except at the curly bits. The cutaway side didn’t really pose too many problems, it just takes longer. Because of the extra bends, reversing on each other, working on one curve tends to start to unbend the opposing curve. So there is a lot of redoing involved. Once its clamped and dried in the mold for a few days, it finally sets up. Next was the osage orange, a wood I hadn’t worked with before. It bent relatively easily, with no figure its curves came out very smooth.

(It might make a good dye, though. While working with the wet, steamy wood, my hands took on a distinctive yellowish hue that took a couple of washings to get out. “They call me Mellow Yellow…(quite rightly)”)

Taking the OO sides out of the mold, there was a bit of spring back, so I’ll have to do some touch up bending before attaching the top.

Next up was thicknessing and glueing the soundboards. Mastergrade Italian red spruce for him, and ‘Bearclaw’ sitka spruce for me. Nothing new here, I used a simple jig to clamp the thin (0.115″) boards. Supporting one side with nails and a boarder, I tent the two halves up 3/8″ and nail in the opposing support.

Pushing down the glued boards provides just enough clamping pressure to the two sides without the thin wood bowing out.

A little weight on top helps keep the joint aligned and flat.

After an hour, I scraped the squeeze out before it completed dried and left them to cure.

You can really see the ‘Bearclaw’ figure ready to pounce from the sitka spruce top. I can’t wait till I get the finish on it (but that’s a bit of a ways to go.)

Next up will be outlining the small jumbo pattern and layout the braces. I’ll be doing two different layouts since the customer wants a 12-fret model, and I’ll do a 14-fret design on mine.

I definitely need to find a better name for this style other than “small jumbo.” No paradoxes allowed at Acorn House!

I recently acquired a 1920s etching by the English artist George Marples. With the subject matter (an old mill) and the time period, I decided an Arts & Crafts style frame would be appropriate. I got a nicely rayed piece of QSWO out of my stock and proceeded to mill and joint. I didn’t want to do something too elaborate that would take away focus from the art, so I didn’t try to do a Green & Green style frame, settling for a simple lapped joint frame with ebony plugs. (Well, African Blackwood, really. Tomatoes, tomahtoes.)

When it came time to finish, I found that I didn’t have any Walnut Danish oil on hand (my normal go to A&C finish), and the closest available was an hour away. So, not having time to make the trip, I read up on the technique of fuming oak with ammonia, a period appropriate method. The ammonia fumes react with the tannin in the oak, causing it to darken. Traditionally this is done with aqueous ammonia, a very strong concentration that is highly toxic, and of limited availability. Not something I really wanted to mess with, not having the necessary safety equipment. But, some people have been experimenting, lately, with using household cleaning ammonia, janitorial strength preferred. Stopping by the local hardware store, I found some “Extra Strength Ammonia.” Very generic, no strength concentration listed, and cheap. I decided to give it a go.

I set up a tent outside using a plastic painting tarp and some loose boards and bricks. With the wind to my back, I set the frame inside with a tray that I filled about halfway with the ammonia. Honestly, I didn’t even get a whiff of the ammonia smell, so I was wondering just how strong it really was. The big difference between household ammonia and the stronger stuff is how long it needs to be exposed. So, I left the frame in the tent for a couple of days, checking it periodically.

After the two days I untented to check, and possibly refresh the ammonia. The bright sun was deceptive, but it was decidedly darker, although grey rather than brown (which I was expecting). It had worked! (assuming the finish browns it as advertised.)

I applied 4 coats of my favorite satin oil/varnish, and it immediately showed its true colors, a rich nutty brown. Now I could really see the benefits to fuming rather than using stains, dyes, glazes, etc. to imitate the fumed look. Some of the “fake” methods do bring out the medullary rays better, BUT, they lock in the color, In the fumed oak, the rays have a chatoyance that is lost under stains and dyes. There is a depth to them and, depending on the angle of viewing, they change from a light brown ray against the darker field to a dark brown ray.

That’s the magic of fuming. Its not just the color.

To finish up I glued in the polished plugs, matted my etching and used a point driver to secure the mat, art, backer and glass in the frame. Ready for hanging.

Even though fuming a large piece would be more of a pain, building a big enough tent, I don’t know if I can ever go back to a stained A&C finish. That’s got me fuming!

I got a commission last year to build a jewelry box for a customer to give to his wife for X-mas. I was planning on following my previous earring box design, using a red malle burl for the lid, instead of spalted maple. I was going to start work on it as soon as the semester finished up, leaving me plenty of time. Of course the best laid plans, etc., etc. During finals week, I came down with the flu and even after I shook the major symptoms, I still had the lingering blahs. I tried to do what I could, started to pick out the wood, and got so far as to shape the red malle lid. It was a turning block that had developed some major checks in it, so I had to change the shape of the design. While milling the cherry for the sides, I kept on running into boards that, after planing, didn’t really look that good; definitely second quality. Also, the adapted design didn’t seem to be working, it just didn’t seem right. This, plus the blahs, plus the cold workshop (which, if I kept the overhead space heater on, got it up to a balmy 40°), plus the other presents I had to make, and the rapidly approaching deadline, led me to an unpleasant, but unavoidable conclusion. I emailed the client to let him know that I didn’t think I would be able to finish on time, with anything that would be worth giving.

Luckily he was understanding (I had told him early enough so that he could make other arrangements), and made a new deadline of March 30th, their anniversary. Cut to the beginning of March. The weather had turned unseasonably warm, I had shaken any lingering effects of the flu and had come up with a new design using the aborted red malle lid in a new way with curly maple instead of cherry. Everything seemed to flow. The design felt right, with each step in the build, I was able to figure out the best way to tackle it, and the execution was coming easy. (Oh there were still a few hiccoughs along the way. After finishing, when I went to put the hinges back on for the last time, I had to try four different orientations before finally getting the screws holes to line up on every leaf.) I got the jewelry box finished and shipped with days to spare, resulting in a happy client, and a happy Acorn House.

Creativity, like invention, may be 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, but that 1% is critical for any new work. (And, its tough to perspire in a frigid workshop!) Inspiration can be a fragile creature at times, but when its feeling up to snuff, watch out! What a difference, indeed. It may need more than 24 hours sometimes, but you’ll know when its enough.

Now that I’ve recovered from Woodworking in America, (and recovered from catching up at school), I thought I’d wrap things up.

My favorite single session has to be Graham Blackburn’s session on using traditional planes for jointing. It was really more than just jointing, he talked about his philosophy on using traditional tools, as well as how to set up and best use various types of planes, both wooden and those new fangled iron and bronze types. Through it all, he talked about the fulfillment of using tools that his forebears had used an hundred years ago; and the fact that, with care, his descendants may still be using the same tools an hundred years from now. The fact that these tools are relatively simple, with a minimal number of parts, means that they are easily fixed and tuned; and that, as woodworkers, repairing wooden planes should be right up our alley! The electron pushing tools have a much more limited lifespan, and, as they get more and more complex, the ability for an average woodworker to handle any major repairs by themselves will be less and less. How many of us, if any, would be able to repair a malfunctioning “flesh detection” technology in those table saws that offer it? That, already, is pretty much a factory repair. (Think how many computers are in the modern automobile, compared with cars from only 30 years ago.)

But, most of all, he showed just how easy, and more to the point, how well, these old tools work. They were designed, and perfected, over many years to do a job, and that development shows, when you know how to use them!

For the overall speaker, (aside from Graham), my next award goes to Jay van Arsdale, and his series of sessions on Japanese tools and methods. Jay really showed many of us a different way of working with, and thinking about, wood. The fact that most Japanese joinery was never meant to be glued, was an eye opener. I had already known how complex some of the joinery could get, but seeing some of these joints in person, and seeing how they were laid out and worked with chisel and saw, made them more understandable. Even using something as simple as an inkpot to mark all of the layout lines became a useful and practical technique, rather than just a quaint imitation of older times in a faraway land. There is a reason why it is better than a marking knife or a pencil for this type of work on these types of woods. I strongly suggest working your way through all 4 of the videos I posted in my last entry for a better understanding. In addition to seeing how Jay works his way through a joint, from start to finish, he provides a running commentary on many of the reasons behind every move he makes. I should give an honorable mention to the perennial favorite, Roy Underhill. Roy is always an engaging and entertaining speaker, but I fear his appeal is beginning to suffer a bit from overexposure, at least to me. While I enjoyed the 1 1/2 sessions of his that I attended, I had already seen the techniques demonstrated on his show, The Woodwright’s Shop. The full session that I attended an making threads and screws by hand, had been aired not too long ago; and the session on frame and panel joinery that I caught the last half of was shown in this past week’s show; and he had covered those techniques in various earlier shows.Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t regret going to those sessions, I just wish he had done something I hadn’t seen before. (At least OSHA had gotten on his case about not using any safety equipment, so he did have a pair of safety gargoyles while turning.)(Um, his pun, not mine.) I guess that is the problem when you have done as much as he has; it’s near impossible not to repeat yourself eventually. Assuming I attend next year, I may just have to skip his sessions. (Sorry Roy, I know you’re brokenhearted over that.)

The loser(s) of the conference, I have already mentioned in an earlier post, so I won’t rehash it. The only other thing that I would have liked to see was more vintage tool dealers in the marketplace. Last year there were four or five that I remember, this year there was only one.

So, while you are drooling over the ultra expensive latest and greatest, don’t forget to patronize the useful but maybe not so dazzling. It’ll be easier on your wallet, and those dealers will be able to make a living and be encouraged to come back!

I have finally had time to process the video clips that I took at the 2011 Woodworking in America conference. I confined my videoing to just one session, Jay van Arsdale’s session on shoji making. One of things you will notice is that layout takes just as much time, if not more, than any cutting or chiselling. In the Japanese tradition, this is done with an inkpot, sumitsubo, and a piece of bamboo sharpened to a knife edge, sumisashi. These ink lines provide a clean, sharp line that is about the same size as the thin Japanese saws, and can be cleaned up with one pass of a smoothing plane. A knife line would remain in the wood, and a pencil line is too thick. (Jay said that at a construction site, it was easy to see who was the head carpenter, he was the one without ink all over his hands from handling the marked boards.)

Bear with any shaky camera work, please, and enjoy. Parts 1 and 2 deal with the marking of a mortise and tenon for a wedged through tenon of the frame of a shoji screen. Parts 3 and 4 deal with the actual chiselling and sawing of the joint.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Here is a pic of the completed joint with the through tenon planed flush.

I will wrap up the conference in my next posting, with additional pics.

UPDATE: Was saddened to hear that Jay was involved in a bad tablesaw accident this week. Luckily, he did keep all of his fingers, but it was close. Lets all wish him a speedy recovery!