sMg Guitars

July 25, 2008

I scrape, I file, I do the voodoo that I do so well, but I cannot burnish. I finished gluing the binding and the purfling for the OM Maple and I next must scrape. Months ago, Rob Girdis kindly showed me the method for “sharpening and burnishing” my scraper.

Let me say now, that my scraper is the best thing ever. I love my scraper. i love to scrape. But some time has gone by, and my scraper needs to be sharpened and burnished. I cannot burnish. My burnisher is a simple steel rod on a wooden handle. I put my scraper in the vise, and held the burnisher against the scraper and pressed and pulled and pushed and forced and……nothing happened. It’s still a rectangular piece of steel without the requisite curled, sharp edge. Crikey.

The only good news from this sad story is that I scraped and filed the hell out of this guitar box, and I am slowly moving toward a beautiful piece of finished product. It is becoming a fine maple box with binding and purfling without gaps, and I must say I am very happy. I consider the butt block area a confluence of rosewood and maple which makes the best freeway overpass collector distributor blush in comparison.

And, my dull sraper allows me to draw and pull along the guitar body without fear of gouging and I can attack and attack with positive results.

I’m also working on a jig for the neck mortise and tenon cutout. Square is your friend.

Label everythig. Your memory will fail. God is love.