Thread: Two Spanish Sisters

Two Filarmonica DT 14s.



First razor -- possibly Amazon Rosewood (not sure as I got the slab in an unlabeled 6-pc exotic hardwood mixed pack). Yellowheart inlay and wedge. Brass hardware. TruOil finish.






It's sister -- Bubinga scales. Brass hardware. Gold leaf (harp) and copper leaf (name) logo. Gabon ebony wedge with copper leaf pin stripe. TruOil finish.

Absolutely beautiful!! I'm jealous.

two questions.

How did you make those fantastic inlays using yellow heart?

Why'd you decide to not pin the wedge end even though it's not a one piece design?

OH MY!!

Ray

Originally Posted by TwistedOak

two questions.

How did you make those fantastic inlays using yellow heart?

Why'd you decide to not pin the wedge end even though it's not a one piece design?

The yellowheart harp inlay was done more or less by hand. Not only is it to brittle to work that small, I don't have any powered woodworking tools other than my Proxxon rotary tool...

So I used the Proxxon with a small dental bit to slowly cut the harp body out of a 1" x 1" x 1/8" piece of yellowheart that I had sanded down to about 1/16" thick. I cut along the outline for about 4 or 5 mm then outward to the edge several times to patiently nibble away little bits from around the outline.

Then I used the same dental bit in the rotary tool to carefully cut out the harp body inlay cavity in the scales (~ 2mm deep). The first time around it was just a hair too narrow in one spot and when I tried to gently press the harp body into the scale cavity and the brittle yellow heart broke, so I had to make another.

Once the harp body was glued into the cavity with wood glue, I hand-sanded them to the desired thinness and curvature, then used an Exacto-knife to make hairline grooves where the strings would go... sliced some paper thin shavings off the yellow heart with the Exacto... then sliced thin slivers off the shavings, and glued them in the hairline grooves with a few small dabs of CA. Standard gap filling and finishing from there.

While I thought it came out pretty nice for only my second attempt at a hand made inlay, I knew there was no way I could make small letter for the name that were even remotely square -- so it prompted me to try the copper leaf logo on the second razor.

As for why no pins on the wedge end - whether or not I pin the wedge end depends on my mood and the type and shape of scale I'm making. Lately I've just been very fond of the smooth, sleek, uncluttered look scales this shape have without them.

Those FIlis look great in Rosewood and Bubinga.

Any chance you could post some more pics of what the blade and scales look like with razor open? I may have to rescale one of my larger Filis, and it would be helpful to see what the rescale looks like open.

What adhesive did you use on the unpinned wedges? They look fabulous.

Very cool.

exquisite sclaes, congratulations, especially on the small string inlays !

I'd also like to know what adhesive did you use?

These are real beauties. You should be proud of that work.