Kerf-ilicious!!

Today I finished the kerfing! I had one little problem and learned one little lesson. When you are gluing something, the glue is really slippery until it starts to set. I read that at KMG's site, but sort of forgot about it. Basically what happened is I had the two pieces lined up, and when I clamped the second strip, using a bigger clamp than the clothes pins, it caused the freshly glued piece to slip out of alignment. Crap.
Here is a close up of my little screw up. If you click the picture, it will get bigger. Much bigger. As you can see, the kerfing is not exactly even. It is not a big deal at all as far as structural integrity is concerned, but it is a problem as far as aesthetics are concerned. The top edge will be sanded down to match the contour of the back, so the uneven part will be sanded away against the back of the guitar. The lip will show when you look inside the guitar. Whats that? Who looks inside a guitar? Guitar snobs, that's who! And I think one or two of those types will see this baby and might just notice this little flaw. I will know its there too. Forever. Damn.


I also glued in the little sticks that you see here. These babies are to make the sides stronger and they also serve to stop a crack, should one ever occur on the side, from spreading all the way around the whole body. Take a look closely, and you will see that I didn't leave the sticks flat on the side that shows. I sanded a little chamfer into them. What does that mean you ask? I beveled the edges so they look more gooder. Please don't make me dumb this down any further, OK? Click the picture to see a bigger view and mock my craftsmanship....if you dare. Anyway, the sticks are the same wood as the sides, which is sapele, also known as African Mahogany, but the direction of the grain is perpendicular to the direction of the grain of the sides. That's how it prevents cracks from spreading. Cracks normally run along the grain, not across the grain. They only run across the grain when you use the guitar to smack some smart ass in the head. In those cases though, it is advised that you do not use the guitar you just built. I recommend a cheap guitar from Target or even Toy's R Us for the aforementioned head smashing. (Disclaimer: The author of this blog, neither smashes smart asses in the head with guitars, nor condones the smashing of said smart assed head with a guitar. Or any other object. Unless its a rusty toaster, but that's another story.)

That's all for today. I still have a couple of those sticks to glue in, and contour the edges so it will match the curve in the top and back. I hope to get that done in the next week or so. I will continue to blog all over the place and post pics and such. Later....