This little soprano Pinecone has proven itself to be a sturdy and reliable travel ukulele just as it was designed to be. Its passport now has stamps for Washington DC a couple of years ago, Ireland, this October, and it just survived handsomely a 11 day trip to India. It is going to hang in the workshop for a long time now, as I am tired of travel. It and I are delighted to be back in the workshop, hale and hearty if a little jet lagged.
. I had a whole day in the workshop today-what a pleasure ! I began with sanding down the rosette rings that were made and glued in place yesterday. The dark stain on the Redwood is shellac I put on to prevent the super glue from penetrating the wood and staining it.
Pass after pass through the thickness sander final sands away the spruce backing and now the spalted maple can be seen in all its beauty. Now a few more passes through a slowly lowered sander.
And here is the finished rosette with purfling both inside and out. Then I turned it over and sanded down the back until the center circle was freed. All four of the soundboards were then sanded down to .80 in thickness and they are completed.
Next project was to make the braces and tone bars for four tenors. Thats 32 pieces in total, and added up to a lot of measuring, sawing, whittling and sanding. They are each made of select fine grained Sitka Spruce with grain going vertically to give them the most possible strength and flexibility. I will begin glueing them to the backs and sound boards in the morning.
