This first shot shows the overall proportions to the body binding and the instrument. These shots show an instrument that has only been roughly sanded out but you can still see where things are headed.
This shot of one of the body points shows why adding decorative purfling to an instrument adds so much time to the build. Every edge is framed by purfling and every place the lines come together, they have to be cut to a mitre joint. This is made doubly difficult because these lines are all really tiny, but a bad mitre is readily obvious so, it’s slow and careful work.
The next two shots are of the wedge at the base of the instrument and the heel tab. Purfling these two spots are actually the easiest but, with twenty three miters, even easy ones get demanding. The heel tab looks bigger than it actually is. The depth of the binding is blending into the edge profile so it looks thick unless you look close. It actually is still close but then, this instrument isn’t completely finited, which is just a fancy shmancy way of saying that it hasn’t had all the surfaces finish sanded. Also, there’s some chalk dust on the ebony where I’ve been measuring for the dovetail joint on the neck. Still, I really like how the purfling adds a refined line to what are already some pretty classy lines.
