Official Luthiers Forum!

Merry Christmas to you.

My next instrument will be a Gibson LG-2 3/4, the instrument that Woody Guthrie gave to Arlo when he was 7. The neck, back and sides will be Osage Orange with a Carpathin Spruce top and I want to do tortoise binding with a b/w/r/w/b purfling on both top and back - like the one below. Since the guitar is small, I want the strips to be .010, or close to it. I can’t find the thin red offered commercially. I can figure out how to cut wider red material into narrower strips, but I don't know how to thin down red material in a reliable fashion. Any ideas? Or is there a source for the finished product?

Thanks

Ed Minch

I would use a large Plane and take a thickish shaving using something like Maple or Poplar. Dye the shaving Red. At 0.010 it's fairly easy to do. Any thicker and things quickly become difficult but at that dimension it's pretty straightforward.

http://www.lmii.com/products/mostly-wood/veneers/colored-veneers VR3 is about .012"

Ed, I would go for the LMI material Eric mentioned. But, it looks to me like the red line in the picture you posted is more like .02 or bigger. (Maybe LMI's PRA?)

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I looked all through LMI and S-M and did't come up with that - wonderful Eric. Joe, I am not sure what the size of the instrument in the picture was, but I have some .010 in the basement that I want to duplicate. Looks like a winner at an affordable price.

Thanks

Ed MInch

Ed, It looks like you can order sheets or precut pieces from LMI. Life is good.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Joe

When I looked at the sheets I also found the strips, but they are only available a little thicker - sheets it is.

Thanks

Ed Minch