I had hoped to start the process of French polishing the walnut guitars, but my materials haven’t arrived. I did some final shaping of the neck on Joshua’s guitar as it was still too bulky. Then, I sanded the necks and bodies of both guitars, progressing from 150 to 220 to 320 grit sandpaper (with a sanding block). The tortoise bindings on Joshua’s guitar look great and were easy to put on, but they do not respond well to sandpaper. Scraper made them look great, but after finish sanding the body, I had to use steel wool to remove all the sanding marks on them.
I had to mark the bridge location and mask that area prior to starting the finish to keep that part on the soundboard raw to allow for gluing of the bridge later. This was somewhat involved, but needed to be very accurate to ensure the scale length is correct. I used the same tool that was used to mark the saddle slot to position the bridge, then used my marking knife to cut the tape outline (just a little undersized to make sure the finish would extend under the edge of the bridge.
Since I wasn’t finishing the walnut guitars, I had some time to glue the end and heel blocks on the new guitars.
Joshua’s guitar with the bridge location masked
Luke’s guitar with clamps in place for the end and heel blocks
Linley’s with the end and heel blocks clamped for gluing
Linley’s with the clamps removed and end & heel blocks in place