The day began with doing the Pumice treatment on Joe's East Indian Rosewood. This wood has many pores and if you want a smooth finish you must fill them by rubbing pumice and alcohol over the surface. The pores are thus filled with abraded shellac. That done, now the French Polish will shine.
Pumice is a very fine abrasive and it grinds off some of the shellac hardened on the surface and moves it into the pores of the wood.
Next the end blocks were shaped on the new sander, which incidentally worked very nicely.
The end blocks will be attached here. the ends of the bent sides will be glued to them. They will also support the pickup or strap button should those be required.
Now they are set, glued and clamped. Tomorrow I will bend the sides and Monday these ukes ought to have their sides installed.
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Now for the veneer brace around the sound hole. This thin veneer tends to curl upward when the wet glue hits it so i use this heavy chunks of fancy wood to hold them flat while they dry.
Now the soundboards are complete, Ready to accept the sides.
And now for the PRAISE part of this blog- At the end of the day I received this delightful photo from Terry in California. He is holding my 27th ukulele and has been praising it in several recent emails. Terry has graciously agreed to have his picture included on the testimonial page of my website. Watch for it.