Day 10 – Bracing Work & Top Kerfing

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Today was a relatively short day for me as I had a gig on in the evening that I had to scoot off to but in the short day I did have, I managed to get quite a lot done. I was continuing on the work of my bracings for the top. Most of the ends had to have 45 degree angles sanded down onto them so that they could almost angle into each other so they worked together in support rather than just sticking them side by side individually.

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Tor was well on his way – working on his neck!

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I glued them all in – maybe the 45 degree angle thing makes more sense now? See how I sanded out little grooves for the bracings to fit in to each other. That was a bit of a fidgety process. Once they were perfect, I glued them onto my top piece and used the go go bars to hold them down as they dried.

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Then I got onto trimming the extra edges from my back piece.

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Few hours later, my top bracings were well and truly stuck on! So cool to see, and such a shame that my craftsmanship won’t be seen once it’s glued on to form the body haha.

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I also glued the Queensland Blackwood veneer onto my head stock. That’s just a thin piece of the wood to match my body as opposed to keeping the mahogany – so really it’s just an aesthetic choice. I’m in love with the grain of the Blackwood so I was all for having more of it. Plus, it just ties the body back into the top part of the guitar.

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I then added a bit of finesse into my bracings by planing and sanding an apex into them. That’s just a traditional aesthetic practice that won’t be appreciated later on, but I decided it was worth doing things right.

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As the back is already glued on and actually has a bit of curve on it. We spent a lot of time putting wedges underneath the body while it was sitting in its jig to make sure that the top was as flat as it can be. Once it was flat, I put the kerfing on so that there was surface area for when the top gets put on. It’ll be ready for me to check out and chisel so that it can slot in the top bracing tomorrow.

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