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This is the beginning of a rosette in the Hatcher tradition. There may be others that do this, but I have seen his and took the liberty to try my hand at it. After I cut it out, I'll scrape off the backing... The arrows show the limits of the rosette thickness. That is, inner and outer edges. There should be plenty there. Its spalted tamarind, koa, lacewood, and indian rosewood, with ebony dividers.

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

Interesting! Post your progress, please!

Nice, Steve!
What kinda glue you using?
Dan

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Dan - It's thin CA. I did a radial rosette before using some thin ebony veneer as a backing and that worked fine. I figured I could simply use some cardboard as a substrate. ...hopefully, I won't have any trouble getting the backing off.

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

I'm looking forward to seeing what the completed rosette looks like. Should be cool.

I've been building rosettes in a similar way. No mosaic ones yet, but using the same approach for making the ring. In case you might find it useful, I've been assembling the tiles and dividers on a template printed on paper that is mounted with spray adhesive on a backing board for routing. I use medium viscosity CA to glue the dividers and tiles together and a single drop of CA on the bottom face of each tile. That is enough to hold the parts firmly in place for routing but it's still quite easy to get the routed ring off the paper by sliding a razor blade under it. It comes off without much paper stuck to the back so that makes cleaning up the back surface pretty easy.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Has anyone tried assembling the rosette face down, so that he backing stays on until the rosette is glued into the top, then the backing and surplus rosette are sanded off?

That sounds good but I like to see what the rosette is going look like. In this case, I want make sure thar the figures in he spalted tamarind and the koa line up where it will cut out...

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

For delicate rosettes you can tape over the show side with clear packing tape before removing the backing. This will help hold things in place and allow you to position the rosette where you want it.

I do the upside down technique I use thin mahogany and you set up that you start the layout on the bottom and the part under the fretboard is moot. You can have a lot of fun designing crazy rosettes this way.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Here's what it looks like after cutting it out. The chipped piece would go under the fingerboard. Looks like it would work...

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

Very nice!

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Should look very nice when it's installed. For multi-piece rosettes like this I use (edit) 1/64" birch plywood for a backer. Keeps everything in place.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That looks great Steve. I'm sure you know this but I'll mention it for anyone that doesn't. If you use a bit the size of the purfling you'll be using around the rosette, you can one time cut out the rosette and then take the circle cutter to your sound board, REDUCING the depth. Make the cuts x 2, inside and out. Hog out the rest of the top material. Drop in the rosette and purfling and done....... but I'm sure you knew that.