Part 5: I've got Wood!

I went shopping! I'm starting to become one of those nutbags who loves wood. But I think it's kinda justified when you look at the wood I bought. From Left to right:


Cocobolo (it just rolls off the tongue)
Ebony
Pau Fero (I have no idea how to say this one)
Kingswood (??? not sure - the name is abbreviated on the tag)


All of them except the Cocobolo look shiny because they were covered in a thick coat of wax when I bought them. All of them have been scrapped but the cocobolo is the only one to be sanded too. These wood blanks are intended for "turning" - a wood working hobby that requires turning pieces of wood at high speeds on a lathe to create pens, chess pieces, and other small objects du arte.

These guys just looked too good to be true and I have some ideas about how I'm going to use them for this project (and ones down the road).

My fabulous girlfriend is a quilter and one of the traits of being a quilter is that you end up building a stash of fabric over time (either because you see a fabric you like but don't need right now - or you end up with leftovers from a project).

...I was telling myself that I'm just building up a stash of wood for future projects when I bought all four pieces. I only plan to use one of these for the lapsteel.

...but which one?

Part 6: Where's my raygun?

Things are starting to shape up the way I'd envisioned. It's starting to look very Buck Rogers. I'm having a hard time envisioning the headstock now that everything is so 'automotive' in design. The National New Yorker headstock (see Part 4) just doesn't seem right anymore. But we'll see. Perhaps I can modify that design to work with this shape.


So, I went with the cocobolo as my accent wood. I made the second set of wings and a stripe on the top face out of the wood blank I purchased. I'm also going to make a hand-rest out of the remaining cocobolo (I just love that word) that will be placed right above the pickup. I'm going to go all super fancy and make it removable too. Router - don't fail me now!


I went with the cocobolo (see, isn't it just fun to read?) because it had the nicest grain pattern. There are browns and reds and blonds and even some purple all mottled together in these tiny pieces of wood. Cocobolo is a central/south american wood that has many of the same visual characteristics of Brazilian Rosewood but differs quite a bit in other qualities. Cocobolo is almost waterproof (some samples don't even float in water), it has a lot of natural oils in the wood. So finishing this guitar is going to be a trip. Some sites I read suggest just hand rubbing the wood after sanding it. It won't need any further protection. It's supposed to polish up quite nicely.


I have a lot, a lot, a lot of sanding and scraping in my future. I was able to rough shape the second set of wings with a combination of a rasp and heavy duty sandpaper. I was originally going to use a sanding drum on my power drill but the cocobolo just gummed it up too fast to use for more than a few minutes at a time.


Sanding is a trip with this stuff. I bought decent grade sandpaper and started at 60 grit just to get things moving. It is slow going and the sandpaper is constantly getting gummed up. I've also been told that this stuff is pretty hard on your power tools - so we'll see how often I use this.


But I gotta say - even in its rough form - I love the way this stuff looks. It might not have been the best pairing with walnut (as you can see from the pictures it's hard to see where all of the cocobolo is. But I'm hoping that this is because I hit the whole piece with a heavy coat of mineral spirits prior to shooting these pictures.

Part 10: Progress...

(click on the photos to see close-ups)

It's been a while since I've made any headway on this build - but I'm back at it. It's winter - what else am I gonna do?

Recent work:

Drilled the hole on the top (and the cavity in the back) for the volume knob.

Inlaid a strip of cocobolo the length of the neck and headstock

Inlaid the Irish penny piece (needs some sanding and polishing still)

Inlaid the fret-dot markers. Man, it you are off by even 0.5 mm it looks funky. Still - it was fun.

Burnt the 'frets' using a wood burning tool. Bought a metric ruler and a set of calipers for this. FYI - calipers rock.

I 'dressed' it with all the hardware for these shots. I still have a bunch of things to do before assembly. Including making a new nut. That aluminum has got to go...

Part 12: Shellac that puppy!

Please click on any of the images to enlarge.

So, I test drove her for a couple of months and boy does she sound good. So good - I didn't want to take her apart again - even to finish her. But I've got two other projects stewing right now and want to be done with this one. So, it's time to 'finish' this one up.

I decided to try using shellac for this build. If you are unfamiliar with what shellac is - go here.



I decided to make my own shellac instead of buying a can of it. The reason for this is that it was advertised as an easy process (it was) and the end result is supposed to come out better (it looks good to me). Making shellac is pretty easy. You buy the flakes (thank you Rockler), grind them up a bit, add denatured alcohol (how much alcihol determines the 'cut'), stir or shake the mixture, wait 24 hours, and you have shellac. I went for a 2 pound cut. I probably should have gone lighter for my final coats - but such is life.

I also heard that you should strain your shellac before using it - as it might have impurities still in the flakes (read bug parts). I did not and was happy with my results. I might try doing so next time.

After you have your shellac you have to apply it. I chose to use a brush. Next time I will try a pad (this is also called French Polishing).

I'm just about done with the shellac as of this post (maybe 1 more coat to go) and I can say that I probably will put a top coat of laquer on top of it. I wasn't going to but after all of the coats that I've done - I don't want to have to do this again. The biggest problem with shellac is that it isn't terribly resistent to water and it is defensles against alcohol. So, if I spill anything on this - I'm back to square one. If I hit this which a couple of coats of laquer - this thing will look good and be protected - so that's what I'm gonna do. Check back for updates.