The Hundredth De Faoite

I am super excited to see/hear/play this one finished. (No rush though, I do like the build thread 'box set'). Hope it might make it to Halsway this year

Thanks earthbalm and Martin.



Gav - The plan is to bring it with me to the Halsway weekend

I mentioned earlier in the thread that I don't have a bending form or mould for this model. These are messy and tedious to make and also take up a lot of storage space so some lateral thinking was required. My "Samhain" model has the same outline shape as "Daithi" but with slightly smaller dimensions for the upper and lower bout width and waist width so can be used to bend "Daithi" sides. My baritone model "Treebeard" is essentially a "Daithi" with the upper bout area elongated to accommodate two extra frets and so can be adapted to hold "Daithi" sides. Lateral thinking complete - problem solved

The Madagascan Rosewood sides are thicknessed ready for bending:



The sides are then bent one at a time in the Fox-style bender using a heating blanket. The wood is given a very light spritzing of water, wrapped in brown paper and then put in the “sandwich” of slat, wood in paper, slat, blanket, slat:



Here are the bent sides in the “adapted” mould:

I'm sure I've seen some builders building on a 'peg board' type system where there isn't a complete physical mold but bent sides are held against a peg and board system which can be adapted for different models. Am I imagining this or is it just a crazy idea?

The end graft will be a piece of figured Madagascan Rosewood with spalted beech inlays forming the number 100 vertically as on the rear of the headstock. The end graft is routed for the first inlay:





The ends of the channel are squared off, the black/ pear/ black purfling borders cut and mitred and the spalted beech glued in:



The end graft is then glued to the lime tailblock using hot hide glue:



The holes for the final two spalted beech inlays are then drilled:



Here’s the finished end-graft after the inlays have been glued in and levelled:



The sides are then glued to the tail-block with black/ pear/ black purflings in between the sides and end graft:







There it is "The Maker's Skid Mark" - a fitting title for my book on stringed instrument making when I get around to writing it

Beaut. What's gonna happen when it gets an endpin?

The Sapele neck block is marked and the two 7mm holes for the bolts drilled:



The neck block is then drilled for the 6mm carbon fibre rod flying buttress braces:



The fingerboard support is then glued in using hot hide glue:



The sides are then glued to the neck-block using fish glue and lots of clamps:



Here’s the rim-set in the mould:



Time to make the reverse kerf linings. These are made from Lawson’s Cypress from a tree that grew in my garden. The strips have been cut and thicknessed and one edge rounded over. The kerfs are then cut on the bandsaw using this jig: