So much to do!!

The Red Mandolin nears completion; I’m just waiting for the French polish to harden and then it can be shipped to its new owner Alan.


Alan has been waiting very patiently for this mandolin and I must admit that I’m very grateful that all of my client’s are so patient. Those of you who regularly look at the blog might realise that I‘m bit behind at the moment, I’m still trying to catch up after my sinus operation at Christmas! Also I mentioned this phrase, “caring more and more about less and less,” in a recent post and I think my increasingly fastidious approach is slowing me up a bit too!

Jill’s Mandolin II

Have a look at the sequence of photos below for the construction of Jill’s neck...... I could just have band-sawn a maple neck out of a big lump of wood but there is going to be a decorative stripe of walnut and red veneer (which will match the purflings and binding) and structurally a laminated neck with a scarf head joint is far stronger.

Planning the best way to use the wood.
Heel glued to neckIt's then cut down the middle ready for the laminations
And finally the head overlay which you saw in the last post is glued on and the head shaped.

I’ve also been working on the rosette and you can see the red theme being picked up again.


Each piece of abalone is individually cut and I was pleased to get the whole rosette from one piece, so the colours match throughout.
How pretty is that!

Matt and Morgan's Blackwood instruments

The two African Blackwood instruments are coming along nicely and you can see that Matt’s guitar has caught up with Morgan’s uke.