Routed the binding and purfling channels.

Got the abalone purfling glued into place and razor-planed down.

I've never done abalone purfling before, so this one took a deep breath and crossed fingers before diving in.

To make the job a little easier, I used Zipflex, which is avaiable through Stewmac. This is the same stuff used my several manufacturers, including Ovation. It's pretty pricey, but after doing the job, it's worth every penny, both from a visual and from an ease of use standpoint.

When I've done the BWB purfling and binding, I use two strips of purfling and the binding. Needless to say, applying the glue to three pieces, then holding them in place while applying the strips of masking tape is a task that requires a lot of concentration. This is because the acrylic glue (basically Duco cement) dries pretty quickly, so I can only work about 6" at a time to assure myself that I don't end up with dry glue joints.

The Zipflex is basically short strips of abalone inside a flexible plastic/vinyl channel. The normal binding glue doesn't grab onto it. The Zipflex folks recommend using CA to glue the purfling to the body. They also recommend using a sealer in the grooves so the CA doesn't wick into the wood and discolor it.

I did some tests on torrefied scrap and found that the CA doesn't permanently discolor the wood. I planned to use BW purfling on both sides of the Zipflex. The Zipflex folks suggest glueing one strip at a time starting with the inner, then gluing the Zipflex to the inner, then gluing the outer.

I found that gluing the inner and the Zipflex at the same time worked okay, so that's what I did. Once this was done, I went back and glued the outer BW purfling. The Zipflex is about half the height of the BW purfling, so I used a razor plane to bring the height of the BW purfling down to the thickness of the Zipflex. That's what you're seeing in the photo above.

I'll glue the binding on this afternoon after I clean any excess glue out of the binding groove. I got the binding/purfling on Paul's 1117 this morning before doing Daren's 1528.

Because of how well the CA used to glue the purfling on this guitar, I'm thinking of using CA to glue the BWB purfling on the 1612 and 1778 instead of the acrylic glue because I can work more slowly and don't have to worry about dealing with three strips at a once. Instead, I can glue the purfling into place, then go back and glue the binding.

I got the binding/purfling scraped down.

I sprayed the top with naptha, then put the bridge and rosette in place to get an idea of what the guitar will look like when it's done.

I've decided that trying to get four guitars done at once is a little too much work. So, I'm going to concentrate on getting this guitar and Paul's 1117 done, then go back and finish the 1612 and 1778.

Next job on this guitar is to get the bridge and top masked off in preparation for spraying the sealer/primer.