1 hour ago, Cliff said:

I still have my first guitar.  All mahogany a 12 string.  Beautiful tone.
My shop then (1970s) was in my then FIL's basement. I owned one chisel, a mushed over handelless hald inch I'd salvaged from some rubbish pile. I had an avacado colored 1/4" B&D hand drill from K Mart, a sears craftsman track sander a sears craftsman router and  their table saw.  
Somewhere I still have the book I bought to help me with the process. 

 

When I started building I started building with electric guitars. I had an old Black& Decker jigsaw one of the black plastic ones that was they were one of the biggest pieces of junk you could buy. I think it was left over for my wife's first husband. And in one of those stainless Black and Decker drills from the 1950s . The one you see Rosie the riveter using . That's what I started with

17 minutes ago, Handfoolery said:

And in one of those stainless Black and Decker drills from the 1950s

I think they  were aluminum.  They were BEASTS~!~!!

I have a 1/2" hex body one from that era.  It's a real arm snapper. 

53 minutes ago, lew said:

Hey, Cliff! How you doin' !!

Great~!!  Been busier than a Ten pec#@$ed  goat.
I seem to be giving all my time to the garden and the wood splitting. Got a box of eggplants so huge I'm thinking of using them to discourage tailgaters. 

Hope you are well.

Edited August 6, 2025Aug 6 by Cliff

1 hour ago, Grandpadave52 said:

keeping plenty busy.

 

Really busy  Recovery is all done and over.  thanks for thinking of me. 

3 hours ago, Cliff said:

I think they  were aluminum.  They were BEASTS~!~!!

I have a 1/2" hex body one from that era.  It's a real arm snapper. 

Yep, aluminum

 

Time to lay out the fretboard.

I'm using a metric equivelent of a 35" rule. I prefer laying out the fret positions in metric because I fins it easier to do.

 

Basically all I'm doing is laying the ruler alongside the fretboard( this one is African Blackwood) and using a knife to put a little tick at each fret position along one side.

 

Then I'll use a square and the marking knife to carry that fret slot position across the face of the fretboard.

 

 

It should go without saying that the fretboard blank is trued up and squared before hand.

And we just continue along in this way until each position is marked.

 

 

 

 

Once this is done I break out my fret saw and cut the slots. I use a piece of tape on the side of the saw plate as a depth stop.

 

 

 

Until all the slots are cut to depth.

 

 

And the video of the process.

 

 

 

As always, thank you for looking and commenting on my thread.

Lots of patience Mike. Thanks for the PiP and the video. Love hearing the birds in the background.

 

How thick is the fretboard?

Thanks, Gramps. Much appreciated.

The fretboard is 1/4 inch thick.

Hello there,

Next step in the process is to size the fretboard for binding.

The fretboard should taper from 1 &3/4" at the nut to 2&1/4" at the other end. But I want to put maple binding on either side of this beautiful African Blackwwood. To do this and have the fretboard come out the proper dimensions I have to make the fretboard undersize by twice the thickness of that binding.

I start by make knife line cuts to mark out that shape/size. So I clamp a straight edge in place so it will not move, and take a sharp knife in my hands.

 

 

And cut the knife lines.

 

 

I will saw close to these lines

 

 

Once I have cut out a rough shape I'll place it in the vise and  break out the hand plane.

 

 

And then it is just a matter of planing to those verydefinitive knife lines.

 

 

 

 

 

And, I thought I had the camera running when I glued the binding, but instead a went about talking to myself like an idiot until I was finished and started looking for that footage in my uploads. Oops.

Here is a finished shot, anyway.

 

On to the neck carve.

I carve a neck almost exclusively with a rasp. The rasp I use is a cheap No name made you know where. There is nothing graceful about it, but it gets the job done. Neck carving and hammering frets are my favorite things about guitar building. I'm just gonna post several pictures of the process. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I get close I start checking with a contour gauge to make certain we are symmetrical along the length of the back of the neck.

 

 

Time to shape the heel. I start by sawing away as much waste as I can.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I move to the coping saw.

 

 

 

 

 

After that various other tools are employed.