Hello there, my fellow artisans and handcrafts enthusiasts!

Welcome back to another entry on this project. This will be the last one. Do not worry, the reason will be at the end of the post. Today, we are focusing in the last bits of reinforcements that go inside the body and closing it up!

Let's get to it!

Kerfing

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This is the last piece of kerfing that goes inside the instrument. This one is to make sure the sides and back have more are of contact. We make them with strips of wood that are cleaned and then bent. Following some steps you might understand better by now, we clean the strips with the card scraper and sanding block. Then, we soak them in water. Once the are hydrated, we use the bender. First, it needs to heat up. Then we use it to shape the kerfing. We try to get as close as possible to the shape of the sides. The other consideration here is to not force the shape too much or the piece might break.

However, it is not just about bending these pieces of wood. We need to leave them clamped to the sides for some time before gluing them. The reason are two. First, we need force the wood to retain the shape it has just been given. Second, it might be still a little wet.

Once the kerfing has rested a bit with the help of the wood pins, we can finally glue them in place.

Reinforcements

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With the kerfing bent, we only need to make the cut to have fit between the heel and end block. This also allows us to limit the height of the sides according to these pieces. We just need to make sure the kerfing is straight when it is glued in place.

When this dries, we can move on to the last reinforcements that are the ones that go across the sides to make certain areas stronger. As you might have guessed, these areas are the curves. We are adding 4 reinforcements on each side to strengthen the sides as they tend to be the most fragile part of the body. We just have to cut some wood to the length that fits between both kerfings. We can even give each piece of wood some work by sanding them. Then we just have to glue each one and hold them in place.

The last part of this task is trimming the excess from the sides that goes to above the kerfing. We use a block plane for this. With that out of the way and after sanding everything, we are ready to close the instrument.

Closing thoughts

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Before putting the back and closing the instrument, there are some other details to work. For example, cutting the bars to make them fit between the kerfing. Then there's the orientation of the back. It must fit with its middle portion right in the center of both the heel and end block.

Once we have addressed all these things, we can use glue and clamp the back. Then we add the rubber bands to hold the back tighter in all places and have a proper glue up. It is just a matter of time until the instrument is ready for the next part.

When the glue dries, we can remove the excess from the sound board and back to have the shape of the instrument. We use the router for this. And you can look at the results.

However, after checking the instrument, there's a problem that cannot be solved. The same issue that prevented the construction of the previous project. The alignment of the neck and body is off. With this, the action of the strings would be too high regardless of what we do. So this instrument is unfit for any further progress. It is time to put aside the failed project and go ahead and start a new one. This time, taking into consideration what made these others go the wrong way and hopefully having some nice instruments at the end of the process.

Thanks for reading and following this one through the stages. See you on the next project!