I made some good progress today and am now ready for the binding. I will be driving up the Skagit Valley in the morning to Pacific Rim Tonewood to buy binding, but first I had a little more work to do.
Before binding can be attached you must cut off the tab of the back. I sawed from three angles with an Exacto fine blade saw close as I could the the drawn pencil mark. Don't worry about those saw marks on the heel, they will be carved away in a few minutes.
With the sharp edge this big old flat bastard file I round off the back edge to my satisfaction
I will be putting an ebony heel cap on the heel separated from the mahogany by a black and a white veneer. I need to take the heel cap down to exactly where the white from the binding will meet the white on the heel. A rough pencil line helps. I will do this with my old English Sheffield flat chisel.
This chisel needs to be really sharp and to assure that I get out my grandfather's razor strop. This is a great way to get the final edge for really sharp blades.
 It is working very well. Small careful slices trying to keep the heel level and flat  Preparing for the top binding I carve away a groove to accept the binding ends. The fretboard covers all of this ugliness. |  Here is the result. Flat and true, ready for a heel cap once the binding and purfling are attached.  Here I slip a scrap of binding in to be sure the groove is the proper size and depth. |
Now I must cut the groove for the back stripe. To do that I have made a router guide and added this guide to the router which follows the edge of the homemade guide.
And here they are, all ready to get their bindings. I will go get the bindings in the morning.
