Welcome to my amateur woodworking channel. If you like building things by hand, or watching some one build things by hand, if you are into tools and wood working, this is a great place to be!
Which method did you find easier to use to put the radius on the braces... the first or second? What size plane are you using? I'm looking forward to seeing how this build progresses.
The second method is superior, IMO. Much more stable and easier to work, and has the added benefit of supporting all or the majority of the brace during work.
Nicely executed marking knife. I had thought about doing that some years ago, even went looking for some used paring knifes, and then life got in the way and I completely forgot to do it. Something to add back onto my to do list. If you can source some leather, you might be able to screw it down from the top of the vise, so the leather hangs down. I believe Paul Sellers did something similar years ago. Another option would be to stretch the leather it across the inner chops and screw it to the sides of the chops. If you screw to the sides the wood should not come into contact with the screws.
Great old handsaws. The dovetail looks perfect - always remember if needed shims can be glued on the tenon/mortise sides and the fretboard, bridge and saddle positioned to make everything exact.
I'm impressed you are building this all by hand. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. I installed some kerfed linings the other day on my ukulele build. I wet the linings down, with filtered water, and let them sit a few minutes before I installed them. They were much easier to work with than when I tried installing them dry.
I do a fair bit of stringed instrument repair- you’ve got the right idea on adding cleats inside and doing initial repair with PVA glue and a clamp or two. I sometimes use neodymium magnets to clamp the cleats in place, and sometimes a set of home built clamps which use guitar tuners and B or G strings to winch the cleats up to the top through tiny holes drilled along the crack. I just did a long crack in the top of a decent student cello top that way, so as to avoid having to remove the top for the repair- extra interesting when you don’t have a sound hole to work through and have to build a ship in a bottle through the f holes. Was glad I have an inexpensive inspection camera with a business end small enough to get through the F holes when it came time to pull the cable ends back through. I usually use a sewing needle as a precision applicator to float CA glue into a crack or scratch, without spreading it all over the rest of the top- I do put masking tape on either side, but just in case a stray drop falls off the needle in the process, and I try to keep the CA fill contained as neatly as possible in the crack to level the finish. If you smear the ca glue out till it reaches the tape, you’ll have a mess to deal with. After it sets, a single edge razor blade with corners scotch taped off works best for levelling the CA glue, then work through a couple grades of very fine sanding, and then polish with a polishing compound or buffing wheel. Sometimes can’t even tell where the repair was, sometimes you wind up with slight witness lines where the CA meets original finish.
Both the top and the back of most acoustic guitars have an arch, or a radius. The back's arch is much more pronounced. They help the guitar to be able to resist deformation from string tension over time. Thanks, Dan.
I'm not not into guitar making but respect the ones of you that do. I not only admire your sawing and hand plane skills but your workbench also. Due to a permanent hand injury I can no longer rip boards with a handsaw. I now cut them close on the table saw and finish off with a hand plane. Thanks for sharing your work.
Thank you, I appreciate that. I have a friend who had to move to power tools to build for physical reasons. Doesn't matter how you get there, just get there. There is an art in the way power tools are used as well.
Thank you so much for this update, sad as it may be. I do pray that you are able to get proper treatment for your broken hand, and that there's an orthopedic surgeon available, should surgery be necessary. No need to apologize, these things happen out of the blue, it's no fault of yours. Just focus on healing, and don't worry about anything else. There are lots of videos to watch on this channel. I've even watched several of your videos again and again, coz there's so much to learn. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with viewers. God bless and take care 🕊️
I try not to remove handles unless I'm going to replace the handle. The metal under the handle doesn't need attention. You have to focus on that area where handle meets saw plate a little more but otherwise you can remove rust and smooth out the plate without removing the handle. I guess I'm mainly thinking about very old saws and I don't want to damage any of the saw bolts and nuts.
Never made a guitar back but I agree I'm not super impressed with open sided sanders they call like 16-32 or 25 -50 , double posted sander just like planer I think would be the ticket. Saw dust my glitter.
Thanks. Not certain, but it was around half the thickness of the back, +/_ a few thou so the inlay sat just slightly proud of the surface before scraping/sanding flush.
I love this plane , it's called many names rabbit 🐇 plane , filister plane , a 78 plane etc ..... I believe you are missing parts but mostly it works just fine . I have the complete Stanley one and I really love it . A great gift to have and you do good work of restoration.☺️ Now that plane makes picture frames more easy to make 🤣 !! Right 😊?!
Thanks. It is an essential plane to have, IMO. It's missing the fence, but it isn't really needed. Many old timers used it just like I, and never used the fence, which is why you find so many of them with the fence missing. It looks like more parts are missing because I am using the plane in my left hand, so it is backwards. The side you cannot see is actually supposed to be laying against the wall of the rebate/rabbit. It has the depth stop and the little cutter for using it cross grain, but they are on the side facing away from you.
Well done ☺️ sir , I like it . Questions ⁉️ Is that a piece of wood with a screw attached to it to make a decorative bead ? Paul seller trick right?! Why use big dowels instead of other methods? Or maybe it's just a faster method ?!
Thanks. Yes, you are correct; a screw in a piece of wood. And, yes, I learned it from Paul Sellers; were it not for him, I would not be a hand tool wood worker. He is the first person I ever saw that demonstrated hand tool techniques in a way where my brain said, "Hey, I can do that!". But it is basically a variation on a scratch stock, and was a common shop made tool back in his day. A lot of what he teaches, like the poor man's router plane, etc., are simply common techniques well known to the wood workers who came before us. As for the dowels, I've seen a lot of ways to reinforce miters. Most of them you either can see, they look tacky, or I doubt their strength. The dowels are on the back of the frame, they are glued in place with a well fitting bond, and once the photo is framed and has a dust cover on the back will never be seen.
Thanks for suffering through the atrocious video quality in most of that. I truly appreciate it. And I use that planing stop almost as much as my vise. I would not be able to do half of what I have without it.
Both. This video is the beginning of my journey as a hand tool wood worker. This entire channel is a vlog dedicated to documenting my growth as a hand tool user and hoping that it will encourage others to try it as well. If I can do this, so can anyone else. I am still learning, even now, 5 years later. I hope I never stop. Looking back now, I don't know if I could stand to NOT work wood with hand tools. These early videos are really low quality, I literally had nothing. I leave them up so everyone will know the origins of this channel.
Great video - I am about to tackle this myself. Do you have recommendations on the type of plane to use? I am confused by "smoothing planes" "low angle planes" etc. What type is best for this kind of work?
The differences between many of those planes can have more to do with the way it is set up than anything else. I use just a standard Vintage Stanley #5, but a #4 would work fine, You could do it with a block plane, but I would not. If you don't own or aren't familiar with hand planes, spend some time on Paul Sellers' channel and gain an understanding, then practice a lot before you actually try to thickness a top or back. Of paramount importance is a razor sharp blade and a very shallow cut. f it gets dull in the least, stop and refresh the edge. Be sure to allow a bit of extra thickness for sanding/scraping the soundhole rosette and final sanding before finish. it can get really thin really fast. I would also recommend William Compiano/Johnathan Natelson's "Guitarmaking Tradition and Technology".
That is my neighbor target practicing. What type of firearm I don't know. It is common here in my neck of the woods. I used 1/2" ply for this; it is a utilitarian tool. Nothing fancy, just meant to do a job.
