Q&A | Buying or Building Side Benders, Where did EVO Gold Fretwire Go, and More! 

thank you Eric . here is a heads up i will admit to watching some unboxing videos. reason is there is so much in woodworking / guitar building i do not know . my background is Navy trained machinist ( in navy lingo machinery repairman) i was on a sub-tender making parts for subs and ships / boats after my hitch was up i kept at that job making things for the oil inderestie for a total of 10 yrs . bottom fell out. went to electronics school and fixed main frames , servers, computers .and cash registers for 20 yrs . bottom fell out again . then finished up as a corrections officer for the county sheriffs office what fun lol ( no) . yup i am an old geezer lol 71 . i retired and set up a wood shop . not played guitar in long time so i thought i would learn how to build classical guitar for a start but got side tracted due to wife"s and my health. i Love your vids you seem pleasant and your info is great. thank you oh i do not wear Tee shirts however i have one of yours .

There's no need to apologize for wanting to make a living with your hard work. Thanks for all you do, good sir. :)

Regarding sharpening... Based on Eric's experience I purchased a Worksharp 3000. It has worked well for me. My main plane is a LeeNeilsen low angle jack with a 2" wide blade. The blades I use on that plane (a toothed blade for thicknessing figured woods, and a standard straight blade that I use to shoot book-match joints) are easily sharpened on the Worksharp 3000, but 2" width is the machine's limit. It works well on all my chisel blades. I did purchase 3 CBD discs and for the Worksharp. I mostly use those rather than the sandpaper on glass discs that came with it. I keep the 1200 grit CBD disc loaded in the machine and strop with a very fine abrasive after grinding. This has made sharpening quick and so I sharpen without hesitation.

I'm a fan of Paul Sellers' method of sharpening chisels/blades. I'm still working on mastering this method but I've some great results with some practice and not so great early on. Narrow chisels I do find it easier to use a guide for sharpening my chisels.

Just put together my first side bending jig, worked well for the first test piece.

If you think the StewMac bender is the Cadillac, visit a ukulele factory and watch them dry bend ukulele sides. Very impressive! Figured woods, no problem!

The company in Germany that makes EVO gold can't get the material they need as it comes from Russia.