#purfling

Since I couldn’t bring all my needed tools with me to Crimson (to heavy to carry everything on the plane, for a month stay), I had to borrow some here. Tom let me borrow this beautiful palm plane that was his grandfather’s! This was a joy to use, and a perfect tool for smoothing the area between the center of the arch and the purfling trough, with the blade so near the tip, it had great reach. I’ve got to get (or maybe make) myself one like this!

By the way- for techies - this is how the arching process goes, more or less, in the (in one) traditional way... Thickness your joined plates to the height you want for your arch (mine is about 16mm here), then thickness the edges to the desired rough thickness, making a even platform around the whole edge, about 0.5mm thicker than desired finished edge thickness (1mm if making the edging ‘trough’). If purfling the edges, purfle now. With a small, gently curved (and very sharp!) gouge (see picture), clean then inlaid purfling by carving a trough centered on the inlay, around the length of the edges (this step is optional/debatably effective for guitars and mandolins, if binding, and if using a hand sander to finish the arch, but it is essential for violin family instruments).

Then rough out the lengthwise arch, as you like, with a large gouge (and perhaps a saw to start, if there’s full thickness at the ends), or with an angle grinder (traditional?! maybe not, but definitely effective!)... With a block plane establish the lengthwise arch along the center line. Then widen the lengthwise arch smoothly down to the edge trough, establishing a gentle ‘recurve’ near the edge. Thus your outside arch is nearly finished, and you can arch the inside to get the right plate thickness for good strength and resonance - it’s that easy!! (wink wink!) 

For himself, one of our luthiers designed and built this beautiful Reedsdale DC with an ivroid binding and purfling, a thin black burst, wood top, trapeze tailpiece, and mixed silver and black hardware.