Binding and the tool to get it done

Jyrki's guitar has hit the binding state in the factory.

Rosewood/spruce is getting curly koa binding and a herringbone purfling for the top. To route the ledge for the purling and binding, I've made a little tool that I spotted a pic of somewhere. With this kind of fixture it's a breeze to cut safely and exactly the amount needed to accommodate the trims. Much easier compared to any and held device. Strongly recommended!

The Manzer Wedge visible, plus to my eye a nice maple/koa end graft detail. 

Simple but efficient

Top to the rim

It's funny how a hobby can be so rewarding. Seeing an acoustic guitar coming together piece by piece, brings such a joy to my esthetic eye. Knowing it was I whose hands and effort made it happen, makes the feeling even better. I'm humbled and privileged to have the opportunity to work with these things. Thank you, Heavenly Father! Thank you, my dearest wife! Thank you friends who have asked me to build a guitar for you!

Jyrki's guitar got it's top and sides glued together today. The body is going to have two additions to the "ordinary" double O -style:

First, there's my interpretation of the Manzer Wedge shape, making the body thinner at the bass side and thicker at the treble side, thus making the guitar more comfortable to hold and play. In a small guitar like this, it wouldn't be utterly necessary, but as I build the 00's some 10mm deeper than Martin, the slight wedgines makes a difference for the rib cage in longer sessions.

Second, there's a soundport on the upper bout of the bass side, making the guitar project towards the player's ears too. 

Not much in this pic. Only pressure. The four cam clamps I got
 from Bauhaus are awesome! Light and handy. 

The inside view.  Side kerfing is mahogany, side "bracing"
western red cedar. 

There's propably still homework to do
 with symmetry. But I'm approaching...
This one's a lot better try than #1#.

Brace shaping and back bracing

Top braces are now shaped and the rosewood bridge plate glued in 00-model. The J-OM model back received it's center seam reinforcement strip of spruce and bracing. The next thing is thickening the J-OM top down to 3mm, cutting the rosette and laying down the bracing pattern. Then it's side bending time, possibly before this year ends.

Making the internal bracing starts
with splitting the quality, straight grained
spruce brace wood
down to size.
Once the wedge is driven into the slab,
 it pops out with a clappy, happy sound.
The tool laying on the floor is "puukko"
(aka fisherman's/hunter's/carpenter's knife)
 - the thing us  Finns used to utilize for every
 walk of life from food supply to cooking to
 eating to making tools & toys to relating to
 neighbors & family to putting up a fire to warfare
and hunting to law enforcement to whatever you name.
 It's pretty handy to have a few at hand in
case of any need.

The grain must be straight and driving
pace slow, to make straight splits

Here the center seam reinforcement is glued down and
the braces are ROUGH split. Enter the plane!

Back brace bottoms are contour-sanded on my
high-tech contour-sander

The center seam is notched to house the braces

Go-baring again. This is such a handy invetion!

Back to the top. All the braces are there, but only
 part of them shaped. I use a sharp chisel in shaping.
 The largest braces are scalloped - meaning some material
 is removed of the brace to make the top lighter
and more flexible.
The bridge plate (3mm) is made of scrap rosewood.
 It's reinforcing the bridge area, as it has to resist
the pull of the strings for the years to come.
The grain goes intentionally a bit off axis,
 to prevent possible splitting from the
string ball ends.

Gluing the bridge plate with wooden cauls.
Finally all the braces are shaped too.