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I'm more or less done with the inside of the top. I just have to scrape/sand it a little smoother, and then brace it. Oh, and cut the F-holes.






This morning, I worked on the damascus steel I'll be making the tailpiece out of. I might also use it for the tuner buttons.

I started with 13 layers. The thick ones are 1084, which because of it's manganese content etches dark, and the thin layers are 15N20, which has a high nickel content, which resists etching, and so will remain bright. More on that later.




Here's the billet arc welded together, and a handle welded on. The arc welding just holds the layers together while I'm forge welding. Forge welding makes all the layers into one piece.




In the forge:




Here's my power hammer:




Here's the billet after the first weld:




After drawing it out to about 16". It started out 4" long.




Then the surfaces are ground clean:




Next I'll be cutting it into four 4" sections, restacking them and welding. Then do it all one more time. At that point there will be about 200 layers, which should give a nice bold pattern.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

That's Hot.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Yes thats what you want , and I doubt that you are to thin on that . I would go ahead and use it .

I love watching mark work on that damascus steel . u should do a toot on making that steel part on here a seperate thread , that in itself is a kewl thing to see

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
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Wow! That's very cool! Never saw anyone make demascus steel before! And on a one of a kind archtop ukulele? This might cause a rift in the space-time continuum!

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I checked out your web site a while back, and your work is stunning!! I heard that in ancient times, the blacksmith had to work outside of the towns because they thought they were performing magic. I think they were kind of right.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

+1
That tailpiece is going to look awesome. How do you get the pattern into the steel?

Phillip, great build. You have my head spinning with the idea of a damascus tailpiece. You may have to add mandolin/uke tailpieces and tuner buttons to your website for sales. I have a feeling it could generate some business.

I'll get to that before too long. There's different ways you can make patterns. This one will involve an angle grinder. More on that later.

In the meantime, I've been working on some other parts.

The truss rod:




The fretboard:




The rim:




The solid laminated linings, which are catalpa:





Sorry, not a lot of detail, but I have a lot going on right now.

I'm having a hard time locating quartersawn black walnut, so I may be using a flat back, instead of carved.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

That is going to be one beautiful guitar!

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

love this project. my grandpa had a little forge and i got to watch him mess around on it a bit. wish i had the space to do that stuff. wont the damascus rust pretty bad....?

Damascus is less rust prone than plain carbon steel, thanks to the oxides that form when it's etched. Also, I'll put a good thick coat of wax on it. Might even lacquer it instead of wax.


I need some advice on the F-holes. Does this look like the right size to you all?

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Here's the projected location of the f holes. Usually they're closer to the waist, but this is just where the saddle will be so...

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

The size looks fine for that body. You might want rotate it a bit counterclockwise, but that's just a personal taste thing. It won't change the sound much, but placement-wise, you might tape the cutouts on and check where the pic/fingernails will be going. If the f-hole has a fragile spot right in line with the strumming motion, it could be a casualty in the near future.

Just something to think about.

Lookin' good.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

I think you will like the lower f hole location for the sound . When I did that with the last Mando-Lind it gave it more bass and a deeper tone . Amazing how 1" diff can make a sound diff. Looking good !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Amazing, Phillip!
You might think about making those tailpieces and selling them to archtop builders!

Neat... I am really enjoying this one.. I have wanted to try out ERC for a long time.. So far, I haven't been able to locate a piece of it that is free of knots and cracks enough for a top... or I would have to just plan to carve it out of knots....

Looking forward to seeing the tailpiece as well...

Ever thought of fooling with Wootz? I really do have a hankering for a good Wootz knife....

Thanks

The knots are really hard to carve...



Not really. I'll probably get into that someday, but no plans yet. I already have more ideas than I have time for.


Yesterday I got the linings for the top installed:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

And last night I cut the F-holes, and today I cleaned them up:







Yeah, I know they aren't very symmetrical....


I also braced the top:





and glued it to the rims:



Should get the back glued on tomorrow.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

You`re making great progress, Phillip.
Was there quite a change in the tap tone after you cut the f-holes and added the braces?
I remember when i was at your place awhile back and I did some tapping on it I remember thinking that this top had a good bit of potential.
I know it had to change things, but how much?
Coe Franklin

_________________
Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Instead... "They don't look symmetrical and they aren't... on purpose. This is a design feature."

Looking good!

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

There was a big change after I cut the f-holes. Difficult to describe, but it sounded "better".
Then after the braces it sounded "tighter", then after shaving the braces it rang like a bell.

Some more pics:

The back. It's flatsawn, but has nice coloring.




The cedar cross grain seam patch:




Gluing the patch on:




After shaping it with a curved plane:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

The braces, which are catalpa:




The braces shaped and trimmed to length:




The linings notched:




And the back glued on:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Awesome, it is a great feeling the get the box glued up... now the other half of the battle!

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Yep, binding's next. My favorite part.

I decided to use osage orange for the binding. Mostly because it's the only wood I've tried that will survive the tight bend at the waist. Easiest wood to bend that I know of.






I use a laminate trimmer for binding. I made a somewhat convex base to help offset the curve of the back. But that wouldn't work with this carved top, so I made a new base:






Worked pretty good. The thickness of the edge of the top wasn't real uniform, so the initial channel was not straight. So I had to scrape some areas thinner and go over it with the router again.






Installing the tail wedge. A couple times I've forgotten to do this before installing the binding. What a pain that is...

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

That thing is coming out really nice! "Installing the tail wedge. A couple times I've forgotten to do this before installing the binding. What a pain that is..."
I've come close to forgetting that as well.
I just put a couple of coats of shellac on my build,
and realized I didn't inlay my logo on the peghead.
I just walked in from doing that today!