Binding troubles

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I had a little bit of a setback when I attempted to glue the binding to my mandolin top. I bought white/black/white fiber binding because I read that it adhered to wood easily by using just regular Titebond, without knowing how difficult fiber binding is to work with for a beginner. I recommend *not* using fiber unless you have some experience. It is not very flexible, and even when I was able to bend it using heat, it doesn't have very good memory. I got glued the top binding piece and let it dry overnight, and was very unhappy with the results, so I removed it and spent several hours cleaning the glue off the mandolin wood.

I've now decided to buy ABS plastic binding through Luthier's Mercantile International. Plastic binding is more difficult to get to stick from what I've read, but much easier to bend, and that's more important to me right now.

I know I haven't posted much lately and seem to be at a standstill with my project. No worries, I will get back on track. Keep checking back for updates, I'll be doing some work on it this weekend. Oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone :-)