Infinity Luthiers Shop Blog

The purfling and bindings are finally completely installed. The top got the same treatment as the back (purfling installed first, then binding). Of course if you run into a weak spot in the purfling or binding, it is always in the most conspicuous of places. Here the purfling split during the initial glue-up. I forgot to get a picture of the actually problem with the purfling. This is a picture of the graft inserted but not yet glued in.

1949 D-28 Purfling Break

Here is the repair with the binding installed as well. I scraped it a little just to get the clouding caused by the binding/acetone slurry out of the way. Not looking too bad. After the guitar has set for a couple more days, the purfling/bindings will get fully scraped the top will get cleaned and the neck reset.

1949 D-28 Purfling Fixed

The bindings/purflings have been a small challenge. I had to install them in several steps.

First I melted the bwb and ivory black together (see the previous post). Then, I glued on the stacked purfling.

Gluing on the back purfling.

Next the ivoroid binding is glued on using a combination of medium viscosity cyano-acrylate glue and a slurry of acetone and binding material.

Gluing the back binding using medium c-a glue and a slurry of binding and acetone.

The acetone and glue make the binding a purfling expand, so it will have to set for a few days to gas off before scraping and shaping to final size.

Back purfling and binding installed and gassing off before scraping.