Official Luthiers Forum!

Just wanted to thank John for a tip he posted in a thread a while back. John said he used craft paper that had been wetted to aid in bending sides. Just wet the paper, put a strip on each side and then add your slats and blanket.

I have been having trouble getting sides to stay bent after bending, so I tried this out a couple of days ago. The sides were bent perfectly and have been holding their shape for a couple of days now while just laying on the drill press table.

Anyway, THANKS JOHN!!!!!

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Glad to help , that is what this forum is all about
Yours
john

I used my blankets from John for the first time last week and they work great. I did have a problem, not with the blanket, but with the foil wrap. I used it for the first time on a set of cocobolo and now have "tiger stripes" on my sides. The foil obviously trapped the moisture in the creases and had some reaction to the oils in the wood. I didn't even think about making sure there were no creases. It will not sand out. Just wondered if this was unique to the coco, as I know a lot of folks use the foil. I've always used parchment paper and have never had this problem.

It actually looks very unique and if I were a casual observer, I'd think that it was figure in the wood. I would like to avoid this in the future though, so I guess I'm going back to parchment. Maybe I'll wrap that in foil to keep the moisture off the spring steel. Any thoughts?

_________________
Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Hi Jimmy

I prefer to wrap the slats rather than the sides, cause to me this allows the moisture to escape during the drying cycle.

I wrapped mine with craft paper and i didn't get any stains, that tip is still worth mentionning, Thanks again John!

let me get this straight, you do not wet the wood, just the paper? where do you find craft paper? i am dumber than normal today

[QUOTE=FrankC] let me get this straight, you do not wet the wood, just the paper? where do you find craft paper? i am dumber than normal today[/QUOTE]

No Frank, you still need to wet the wood and that craft paper is the same as brown paper bag from groceries or the ones that our tonewood suppliers wrap their shipments in.

Serge

Frank, here is a source for kraft paper.

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Thanks Don...Here is another stupid question, do you use the 40 or 50? It says teh 50 is polished on one side...does that matter?

Frank, I just bought a roll of paper at the office supply or something like that. It's the kind you use to wrap packages. Also, I didn't wet the wood, I just ran the paper under the faucet and then stuck it on either side of the wood. Worked like a champ for me.

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Jimmy, are ya sure that the foil is what left the striping and not the water? Tap water can carry iron and other minerals that may collect on the wood. I`m using distilled water these days.

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