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Comment by Scot Tremblay on February 25, 2011 at 19:33

Yes, sandpaper, holly and ebony are not good bedfellows, for sure. I think a sharp scraper leaves a much nicer finish anyways than even the finest grit sandpaper. Sandpaper always leaves the wood fibers roughed up whereas the cut fibers from a good scraper always look nicer IMO. As you say, more translucent.

 

Speaking of "knife cuts", I recently took possession of a wonderful baroque guitar that showed many tool marks. At first I was a little unsure of it (been looking at the modern aesthetic of perfect clean work too long) but once I realized that the builder was working hard and thoughtfully to achieve the look, feel and aesthetic of the original, it all made perfect sense to me and now cannot imagine the guitar any other way. Hand tooled instruments have a wonderful visual appeal all their own, marks and all.

 

 

Comment by Lawrence D Brown on February 25, 2011 at 19:10

Yes, poplar endblocks. The neck is made from quarter-sawn mahogany. The holly and ebony strips are 1.5mm thick. I found that I can't use sandpaper on this instrument as the ebony dust immediately turns the holly gray. The entire instrument is being finished with metal scrapers, just like in the old days! The pegbox is a holly core with ebony on top and bottom. I like the scraped finish. It looks sharper than a sanded finish, more translucent. I also like the look of many tiny facets on the pegbox, just like better violin pegboxes which are never sanded but show the knife cuts.

Comment by Scot Tremblay on February 25, 2011 at 15:28

That's going to be a pretty one, Lawrence. I look forward to seeing and hearing it when done.

Are you using poplar for the neck/end blocks? Looks like it from the photo.