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What's the best technique to put the slope in the bottom of the slots of a slot head? Curved chisel, file, dowel wrapped in sandpaper, combination of these?

Any suggestions? This is my first...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

File and dowel with sand paper

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

All's fair in love and lutherie: I use all of those techniques.

One of the handiest tools I have is an 'in cantle' gouge. Take a normal gouge and grind it so that the bevel is on the inside, rather than on the outside. Properly sharpened, with the outside surface flat, as you would do with any bench chisel, you can make paring cuts on the inside of the curve. The one I have I found at a flea market. It has an offset handle, and I believe it was made for cutting inside radius corners on wooden patterns for castings. This tool makes cutting those curved ramps a cinch (more or less).

Alan do you a pic by chance of your chisel?

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
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If you use flat ramps, you don't need a curved chisel (and easier to sharpen). Whichever method you use, you still need to be very careful not to mar the inside of the slots and use very sharp tools especially if using edge tools and you have multiple laminates in your headstock facing.

Or you can just tool up properly... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKZvttu4KZ0

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Violent and loud. I love it.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

This worked for me for years. Have to be careful though...

http://www.amazon.com/Vermont-American- ... otary+file

I have a round rasp and then finish off with a dowel and sand paper.

I don't know about you all but one thing that drives me crazy is when strings touch any part of the slot including the ramps and sides. I'll lose sleep at night if the string is not clean from nut to string post.

I findthat iwasaki (?) files work well for this, followed by sandpaper

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I use a gouge to get most of the waste out, then a file to fine tune followed by sandpaper on a dowel to clear the file marks.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Dremal with a small 80 grit drum.
Then sandpaper.
mike

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Mike Collins