Mandolin Build

Early March

Quarantine had me playing a lot more mandolin, so I started looking into upgrading from my Loar LM-110-BRB (which I love and will always love). I was looking into high-end F style mandos around the 5k range but had trouble justifying it to myself.

I have also been on a hiatus from woodworking for roughly 10 years due to apartment living and have looked into instrument building on multiple occasions. I watched a few mandolin build videos and realized that if I could find the right kit, I might be able to build one with hand tools and patience. Using the calculation of “how much fun will I get out of this money” I decided that taking some of the cash I was going to spend on a new mando, picking up a new hobby, and getting back into some woodwork would be a better use of my funds.

Ordering

(Late March)

With the nod from my fiancée to take over our puzzle table for a couple months, I ordered the StewMac F5 Mandolin kit as the majority of the work requiring a woodshop was done but there was still a LOT of work to do.

I ordered a bunch of the recommended tools, knowing I will have to order more later on, but I got what was needed for body and binding assembly. I also ordered a toolbox, apartment building means that after each session I would clean up my workspace and put any tools away. Having a dedicated place to put all my tools has kept this from taking over my apartment. I also picked up a pack of wood carving blocks, contractor shims, and some maple planks, these have all been super useful for testing cuts, clamping setups and supporting things/making cauls.

For learning what to do I picked up the Stew-Mac instructional video from Don MacRostie. That video was pricey but holy crap it is worth it is weight in gold. I supplemented this with Roger Siminoffs book, that thing is the bible on mandolin building and it is excellent, great for getting additional info and perspective of a different process.

The first step was gluing the kerfing to the rim. I made a bunch of rubber banded clothes pins and used my chisels to carve out a notch to support the angle of the kerfing. Gluing the kerfing was painless and it went in well. I used a sanding stick (flat stick longer than the mandolin body with sandpaper on one end) to sand all the kerfing flush with the rim. I penciled the rim all the way around to know when the kerfing was flush. I made sure to return the cardboard inside form and built a cardboard outside form to keep the rim set correct.

The Stew Mac kit came with a super rough machined top and back.

I had to carve the top of the top to the preferred amount of recurve, and then the back of the top to the proper thickness. I used a 10mm ibex finger plane for all of it and I can now say this is my favorite tool.

For the top I started by drawing a line around it using the rim set and then drew a second line an 3/4 inch in for my recurve location, as well as another just a bit in to account for the binding. Keeping the plane between the 3/4 line and the binding line I carved out a recurve to as close the recommended depth as I could get in that width. Blended from the top to the recurve and then moved my 3/4 inch line another quarter inch in and carved the recurve to the desired depth, and blended again. Finished up by sanding out the carving marks. From there I started work on the back of the front.

I used the rim set to draw an interior line so I would know where to stop, you don’t want to carve where the kerfing meets the top. I clamped the piece on some wood blocks so I could easily use my calipers to check thickness as I went. Starting with getting close on the plan thickness around the edges and in the center, I then blended it down.

Using a template made from the plan, I drew out the scroll dimensions, as well as the binding line and using a coping saw, cut the scroll out. From there using a gouge and my finger planes I cut out the shape of the scroll and sanded out any imperfections. I still worry that I didn’t cut enough space there but I am okay with a beefy scroll. I then used the top as a template to draw out the scroll cut for the back.

I repeated this same process on the back. HOLY CRAP, curly maple is a lot harder to carve than spruce, had to take a day off because of finger blisters.

Top and back carving was now complete.

Using the plans I made a template to lay out the location of my tonebars on the underside of the top. I then cut the tonebars to size, and using a pencil in a closepin, I was able to draw a rough line to start shaping the tonebar to the curve of the top. Using my finger plane I started carving this shape into the tone bars. After I was close I used a pencil nub with one side sanded down to do the same operation to a finer degree. Using sandpaper I adjusted the fit so that when holding the tonebar inside the instrument I could see no light coming through the join.

Now that my tone bars were shaped it was time to cut the F-holes. This was scary as heck with how much time I had in these tops, but also super exciting to see a distinctive “instrument” element take shape. I drew out the centerline on the top, measured the location of the 16th fret crosspiece, then measured the location of the bridge from there, and squared out to each side to get my F-Hole locations. I made a template using some thick plastic quilting template and the plan to align the F-Hole with the side of the instrument, aligned with the bridge position drawn on the instrument. After a few test drills on some scrap, I drilled out the top and bottom circles of the F-holes and used a coping saw to roughly saw the lines between them. I sanded to the lines using some dowels with sandpaper stuck to it, bent feeler gauges with sandpaper stuck to it, and loose sandpaper.

With the F-holes done I clamped down my tone-bars for gluing

With the tone bars glued, I used my magic finger plane to shape them to the dimensions in the plan and smooth/round them out.

Apr 16th

I was super stressed about this before I even got my kit in. I know the preferred method is with a bandsaw, but I would have to rent one, I haven’t used one in 10 years, and big mistakes happen quickly. I decided to try to find a way to do it with a coping saw. I drew out my lines on the scroll block using the top and back as templates. I then used this to create a plastic template that I would tape on the bottom, the idea was that if I had my saw out of 90deg alignment I would hear the plastic rattling and adjust. This worked surprisingly well, but the flex in the saw blade led to a bit of a bow outward at the center of the block. Using different sanding tools I was able to straighten that out some, it isn’t perfect, but I am in no way expecting perfection. I think next time I’ll use a bandsaw, but it was good to see this method is viable. (I forgot to take a picture here :( )

Gluing the Top (Apr 17th)

Oh boy, time to start gluing the big stuff. I did a test clamp, starting by using tapered dowels to hold the scroll in registry, aligning the center of the bottom, clamping on each block, and then using spool clamps around the edge. Now that I had a run through the clamping setup I was ready to clamp. I used a waxy colored pencil to draw all the way around the rim (not the kerfing) so that these pieces will come off easier when I do the binding. Then I spread my glue and clamped it up!

It came out great.

April 19th

It was now time to align the neck, the dovetail was pre cut but still required some adjustment to get the neckset just right. I created a plastic template that lined up with the neck profile and projected a center line right down the instrument. It is flexible so I could lay it on the neck and check the alignment at the base. I used the fretboard, some feeler gauges and a straightedge to see the height of the neck relative to the bridge. I marked a line on the dovetail and one above it that I needed to get to to get to the ideal neck height. Using a file I removed material from the cheeks of the dovetail on the body, not touching the mahogany, just the maple. I first got my side to side alignment close by sanding one side of the cheeks (this took a bit of filing on the dovetail as well), going super slow and checking alignment with my template often. I then filed both cheeks equally until the dovetail sat in at the proper depth. There is a small amount of play here so I am hoping I got this right, time will tell. I then used my straight edge to project a line to the base, and measured the distance from the tail block to the straight edge, and cut a small block of wood to this height. I will use this in cutting the heel and gluing the back.

16th Fret Slot Extension and Heel Cutting (April 19th):

With the neck still on, I fit the 16th fret slot extension into the top of the dovetail and pushed against it, holding it solid I scribed a line on the maple with an xacto knife where I will need to cut away so it will seat properly. I deepened that line and chiseled away the top wood down to the mahogany, the extension slipped right in, perfect fit. I made a caul for clamping this piece which could go around the heel of the neck. I was very careful with my glue here, if any got into the dovetail I would have problems getting the neck out later. Clamped, glued, done.

I turned the mandolin over after letting that dry for some time, and clamped it by the neck to a piece of ply (thick enough to let the extension hang-over) and using the block I made earlier clamped the body to another piece of ply at the base. I taped some feeler gauges that matched the thickness of the back of my saw right behind the neck heel, and pressing my saw against it used it to make a straight cut through the excess heel. Using the same sanding stick technique I used for the kerfing, I sanded this flush with the mahogany, using a pencil mark to know when I have sanded far enough.

Gluing The Back (April 19th):

I made a label for the back piece in photoshop, printed it on some nice paper, used some sandpaper to thin it out and weather the printing a bit, wrote in the details and glued it to my back.

I mounted the mandolin on a beam with a notch to account for the extension piece. This gave me easy access for clamping all around the instrument.

Once again I test-clamped everything. I removed the cardboard forum (that would have sucked real bad to leave in there) and did my colored pencil line on the edges. From there I spread the glue and clamped away. After the clamps were on, I removed it from the beam, removed the neck, and used strong clamps at the base and neck blocks.

I triple checked my alignment and let it rest overnight. It came out pretty great. Feels super good to have the body together.

I started today with busting out the lamination jig and building a long strip of binding, mainly so I have a piece available for depth checking and measuring the correct size for the button. With some trial and error it went well, some black smudges from the process but it should scrape out no problem.

Next I worked to measure and cut the button from the back. After that I chiseled, filed and sanded the scroll area flush with the rim so that where the binding rises off the rim the sides still sit flat. Had a big piece of chip out on the top, but fortunately it is within margin so the binding should cover the mistake.

Next up I believe I am busting out the Dremel to start cutting the binding slot, this is terrifying, going to do a bunch of test cuts on some scrap to ensure depth is right, and to ensure I kind of know what I am doing.

April 21st

That went... Ok. Took a while to get the stewmac binding guide set just right in the Dremel, did some test cuts, and some more, and then decided to go after the instrument itself. 3 Major oopsies, two of which will for sure be a minor defect in the end finish, but that is fine, my goal is an instrument that plays well and looks alright from a distance.

Oops #1: I didn’t tighten the bolt in the guide enough so there is a 3” section where the binding will sit a little too far in, I should be able to sand the side piece to it so that isn’t a massive concern.

Oops#2: Dremel bucked and I had some tear-out. Pretty minor, but will be visible forever.

Oops#3: Lost track of grain direction, more tear-out;

All things considered, I am happy with the results, much much bigger mistakes could have been made. Super happy I managed to keep a nice sharp tip on my points.

Next up is hand carving time, I have to carve the channel near the cross-piece, button, point corners, and scroll. This should be interesting, but I will take my time and hopefully it will work out.

April 22-23

Day 1: Started by getting a nice right angle on the bottom point I cut some template using the blueprint to plan out this cut, that went super well. Then I cut the piece leading to the 16th fret extension, also went well.

Next I made some template for the body leading up to the button and cut out the detail. Went pretty well, realized my button has uneven leveling, but that will get sorted when finishing the neck.

Now the time came to start work on cutting the scroll channel. I started with the top. I I went SUPER slowly, measuring with a small nook of binding all the way, primarily using an exacto knife, and dogleg micro-chisel.

The outside line went pretty easy, got a nice ramp up to the scroll point, leaving the meat of the point for last.

Next the inside, man that was tight, I cut off some of the excess extension wood, making sure to avoid any area the neck dovetail would touch.

As I got up to working on the point, I realized my incline on the inside was much steeper, and had to go deeper closer to the point than the outside, took some working out, but I for sure have some binding scraping in my future. All things considered it came out alright for my first time doing it. Tomorrow I will do the same on the harder, and probably slower to cut backside.

Day 2: I thought the harder maple would be more difficult to carve, but the additional stability was really nice. Once again, I took my time with it and I am happy with the results. Now I have the weekend to get super frustrated figuring out binding.

Day 1: Mentally prepared with the knowledge that this will be a journey, and with zero plans for the next two days I set out to start binding the mandolin body.

I drilled multiple holes in the beam I used for gluing the back so I could run spool clamps through it and give myself a solid platform for working the binding with easy access to run rubber bands around the body.

I started with the front, I probably should have started with the back as the front is more visible and I have never bound anything before.

It was super fiddly and took ~6hours but I managed to get the entire front part bound. This came out far from perfect, some gaps, some sloppy miters, but I didn’t have any major disasters, and for the most part it looks alright. I am pretty darn happy with alright as I am new to binding, and I hear F mandolins are pretty tough.

The hardest part was getting the right heat on the binding, not so much it melted, not so little it delaminated and wrinkled when bending. Also, next time I make a strip of binding I will use A LOT more acetone, there were several gaps I had to on-the-fly re-laminate while doing this.

Day 2: Using the lessons learned from the previous day I set out to do the back. It went much faster, and the result was much cleaner. Almost burned my fingers off with the heat gun when shaping the little button piece. Feels good to have this part done, imperfections aside. I have tremendous respect for the skill of professional luthiers, watching pros do binding makes it look so easy, this was for sure a challenge.

After this was done, I sanded the top side flush, really satisfying to see that part finished, and super happy with the results now that it is cleaned up. I am still waiting for the back to fully cure, so I will save sanding that one flush for tomorrow.

Routing

• One spot where the jig slipped (bolt not tight enough) and the channel was a bit too deep

• One spot where the Dremel bucked and had some tear out

• One spot where I lost track of grain and had some tear out

• Tough to get the channel just right in the scroll hand routing, made my scroll point too pointy, hard to get binding that sharp.

Binding Lamination

• Couple spots where it wasn't properly laminated leading to wonkiness when bending

Binding Bending

• Couple spots with the wrong heat when bending the binding in a tight loop, lead to some wrinkles on the inside

• Mitering is just hard to get right

• In general this is an art and takes practice. I think if I had triple the binding material and I wanted it to be perfect I could get there, but it is hard and I am okay with some mistakes. I am trying not to stall out completely due to perfectionism, I want a complete mando, not a perfect one.

Gluing

• Couple spots that weren't properly pressed in super well with the rubber bands that I missed when inspecting while curing, should be able to fix these with some heat.

I got the back binding all sanded flush, saved myself a ton of time by whacking it down with a razor first. Next I installed the truss rod, and glued the filler stick, that went super smoothly, nice tight fit.

I got in some Madagascar rosewood headstock veneer, and an Indian rosewood fretboard. I like the look of wood grain better than ebony, and this is super nice wood. I am considering not binding the headstock, so the wood can shine, and because I don’t have a 30 degree router base. This will require taking a corner of the veneer and gluing it to part of the side so that it is thick enough at the top.

After this dried, I chiseled and sanded flush the excess filler strip.

I created a template from my headstock and used that to draw the lines for the truss rod cutout and the scroll piece of the headstock veneer. I then cut this out with a router bit on the Dremel and the stock Dremel router attachment (I am still waiting on the precision router attachment to come so I can do inlay.)

Using the scroll slot and some dowel pins, I was able to line the board up on the headstock, flip it and draw my true guidelines. Then it was back to the Dremel to roughly carve the shape of the veneer. I noticed it was a bit too thin on the scroll area so I joined some of the scrap to give a little extra width there as I have decided not to bind the headstock and I need it to cover the entire face.

I made a wood caul for the back so the pins can come through, and used an acrylic top caul so I can see the alignment when clamping. I then spread the glue around and clamped it up. 6 hours later I adjusted the nut cavity to fit the washer and loosely fit the truss rod hardware.

After gluing I tried slimming this down with some files, and broke a piece off; glue, clamps, and time to rejoin that piece. Then I figured it out, using my carving knives I was able to get the headstock close to flush with the sides. I drilled out the peg holes and a hole through the small scroll using the headstock as a guide and a backing board to stop any chip out. Using a smaller knife I finished flushing the details and sanded everything flush, then smoothed out the hard corners, resulting in the finished veneer (minus inlay).

Using the blueprint, I made a template for the fretboard, scored along the line and started to shape it using a hand plane. I was super happy with how the Japanese pull-plane worked for this job.

After doing one side I realized I screwed up bad, I had it marked out backwards, and the taper went the wrong way. After doing some math, and re-finding the center I was lucky enough that I had enough material left on the wood to fix this issue, a millimeter or two more and I would have been out of luck. Then using my fretsaw and some files I shaped out the decorative bit.

I then measured out the center for the dots, poked a pilot hole with an xacto knife and used a brad tip drill bit to put a shallow hole in the board, a little CA glue and the abalone dots were installed.

I laminated and scraped the binding for the fretboard and I was off on a 3 night lake vacation for my birthday. When I got home, I went back and forth between nursing a hangover and binding the fretboard. After binding I sanded the binding and dots flush with the top, and then did some finish sanding to bring out the look, as other than oil, the fingerboard won’t take any finishing coats.

I was super happy with the results.

The next day I installed the side dots and got to fretting.

Fretting took some work, I am not sure how happy I was with my fret tang nippers, they put a little bit of bend in the fret on the end, but just a tiny bit which isn’t super noticeable and shouldn’t affect how it plays.

I then filed the fret ends flush with a fret file, beveled them, and rounded the fret ends with a fret-dressing file. I think it came out pretty great for my first time doing this.

I wanted to keep a natural look on this mandolin but the headstock felt so bare all alone, so I decided to try my hand at inlay.

I still wanted to keep it relatively simple in case things didn’t work out and to let the wood shine, so I decided to go with the good old fashioned PRD (my initials). I started by searching for a few fonts that I liked and playing around in photoshop, turning the letters into smart objects and playing with sizing, arrangement, thickness etc. I landed on the attached logo and set out to start cutting the abalone.

I printed out the individual letters of the template and glue-sticked (stuck? stickied?) them to some of the nicer pieces of abalone I had. There was a bit of a learning curve to cut the abalone, and I went through a ton of jewelers saw blades. By the third letter I was feeling pretty good. Drill the hole, cut out the inside, cut out the outside, move on to the next letter.

The next day I glue-sticked the letters in a proper location and photo-copied them to make a template in the shape I cut, which has some variance from what I was trying to cut. I then did a test on some scrap headstock veneer to get a feel for the Dremel router as well as to ensure the template worked out how I wanted. The template was great for getting the general shape, and the ripping paper made me err on undercutting, then a repetitive process of placing the piece, and shaving off little bits to make it fit, repeat, finish a letter, repeat but this time with each letter placement. After I felt good on the scrap, I found the centerline of the headstock, and laid out the template with a glue-stick. I gave this 30min to dry so I wouldn’t have any lifting. On went the router and a few hours later my pieces fit in well. Some gaps, I expected this, but not too bad, and I didn’t ruin my headstock.

I CA glued them in, waited for it to dry and rough sanded flush with some sandpaper stuck to a flat board. I then made some sawdust from the test-scrap, mixed it with Elmer's glue, smeared it all over and clamped a flat board on top (with parchment paper in between) until the Elmer's dried. From there, I rough sanded the glue flush (It did an OK job filling the gaps.) and because I couldn’t help myself I did some finish-sanding. Overall I am happy with the results, a bit rough close up, but It is flush, smooth, shiny, and pretty-darn-close to the design I wanted.

The first step in clamping the neck was to fit it in the dovetail, and score around the button on the back. While doing this I double checked my alignment and height with my alignment template and a straight edge on the fretboard.

After removing the neck I used a rasp to carve the neck heel down to fit the shape and size of the button, being careful not to touch any part of the dovetail cheeks as this would screw up my neck set. I then cleaned and smoothed this area with some files and then 120 grit sandpaper. I was surprised at how well this went, it feels like shaping wood is starting to come more naturally to me which is crazy progress from my initial struggles with the finger plane.

I then made a caul for the dovetail joint and the bottom of the mandolin. These needed to be shaped to allow for both the curve in the back, and to provide a level surface for the clamps. This is because the top of the neck and the back of the mandolin sits at an angle. These also allow the feet of the clamps enough clearance from the instrument.

After taking a breather and triple checking it was time I spread the Titebond evenly throughout the dovetail and on the bottom of the heel of the neck. I then loosely fitted the neck in the dovetail, and used the clamp to push it down flat with the button. It is a really tight fit with the glue in there, and the creaking in this process was deeply unsettling.

I let this one stay clamped overnight because I had no other mandolin plans for the evening, and this COVID vaccine was for sure slowing me down.

In the morning I unclamped, and it looks and feels super solid, I rechecked the neckset and we are all good!

With the neck glued it was time to attach the fretboard.

First I had to level the 15th fret crosspiece. I knocked this down with the Dremel and used files and sandpaper to get it nice and level with the rest of the neck. From there I needed to shape, glue and level the fretboard extension that supports the area where the fretboard extends over the body. It was really satisfying to round out the edges on this. With that level I had to shape the taper of these decorative pieces to the body, I used a chisel to cut them at an angle, then files and sandpaper to round them out.

After quadruple checking the neck was nice and flat with my straight edge, I was ready to glue. Or was I....

Looking ahead I realized I trimmed the headstock veneer back too far, creating what would be too deep of a channel for my nut. It was time to get creative, I laminated a piece of ebony extending the veneer. I then routed this down and inlayed a strip of abalone to give a nice decorative strip below the nut. I have to say this was for sure a lemons/lemonade moment because it came out looking really nice. Then I slathered the neck and back of the fretboard with glue, lined up my 15th fret, and rubber-banded away. I let this dry for 24h.

While I was waiting I realized the black and white truss rod cover didn't quite fit the aesthetic this instrument was taking. I decided to build my own, I grabbed some abalone, some rosewood and some ebony scraps and made a cover. I am really happy with it. Some filling, sanding, and polishing later I think it looks pretty good, a bit wabi-sabi but should complete the headstock nicely.

The next morning the fretboard was on and I installed the nut. I made a jig that would hold the nut flat against the fretboard, then I clamped this onto the headstock and used it as a saw guide to cut the right amount of veneer off. I filed a flat (...ish, it isn't perfect and may need to be fixed later) seat for it and it slid right in. I filed and sanded the sides down flush. I then used the measurements from my blueprints and a series of nut files to cut the string slots, I keeps some feeler gauges at the height I wanted my strings to sit on the fretboard side so I would know when I had cut far enough. Then I used files to round out the sides and back, and finish sanded up to 800. The pearl looks really nice.

So here we are, HARDWARE TIME. Crazy to think I may be stringing this thing up this week. My hardware comes in tomorrow, I know it is “lipstick on a pig” but with this many hours in the build I had to splurge on some Waverly tuners.

With assembly done, I had to wait for my hardware to arrive, and of-course it got delayed a day. I took this time to do some light fret leveling with a straight edge and some sandpaper, for the most part, the frets were super flat, I had to hammer a couple, and only needed to sand a few spots. I also leveled the bridge feet by sticking some sandpaper to the top, and wiggling the bridge around on it near its proper location until all the ebony was scraping.

After my package arrived I inspected the pieces, Waverly's are SUPER nice tuners, I may have a hard time going back.

First I reamed out my peg holes with a violin pegbox reamer to allow the Waverly bushings to press fit to the face. If I had to do it again I think I would have gotten a flat reamer from Stewmac instead of a tapered ream. I then aligned the tuners and using a depth-stop drill bit, drilled my pilot holes for the hardware. Then I screwed in the tuners and they fit great.

Next I used a depth stop bit to drill the pilot holes for my truss rod cover and installed that.

I re-found center using my neck set template and drew a line square down the bottom. I lined up my tailpiece and used an awl to score a start hole for the bottom screw. I drilled the pilot hole, and installed the tailpiece using just that screw. I then followed the same process with the side holes. I then found the center of the end pin and drilled a pilot hole there and installed all the screws and endpin. This tailpiece did not require a large tapered endpin hole.

After that it was time to string it up. I had to make a small nut adjustment because one of my A strings were catching. After getting bridge height and intonation correct, and retuning 3000000 times while the strings and instrument got used to the tension it was ready to play!

I am realllly happy with the sound. I could be biased but I think it sounds better than my other mandos. I need to adjust some of the action, make the neck a bit less chunky in 1st position and level a couple frets still, but I am amazed I made a mandolin that is functional and sounds good.

Now it is just a matter of playing it and getting the feel dialed in, in a week or so I'll start staining. I am considering busting out the strobe tuner and working the Siminoff method for voicing.

After several weeks of playing, adjusting, more playing, more adjusting it was time to take the hardware off and start finishing this mandolin. I decided to use the Rosa String Works process for this, I can't recommend this guys channel enough, it has taught me a lot.

I picked up a piece of spruce to practice the sunbursting process and get a feel for the stain. I am glad I did this because it was a bit of a learning curve.

I used Fiebing's Leather Dye and I have to say this stuff is a dream. Having stained wood with other products for non-luthier projects, this is a night and day difference. It doesn't smell bad, it dries quick, it is alcohol based so it doesn't raise the grain, and even better some denatured alcohol makes it really easy to blend. I will be using this on any woot-staining projects in the future.

I started filling any gaps with Elmer's stainable wood putty and sanding everything to 320 grit trying to get rid of as many scratches as possible. From there I used a damp rag to raise the grain, and sanded 320 again. I repeated the grain raising and sanding process 2 more times.

I then taped off the headstock veneer, fretboard and as much of the binding sides as I could in an effort to reduce the amount of scraping needed.

With my bottles of Fiebing's Leather Dye in hand, next was the scary part, dying the entire thing yellow. It looked as though I did a pretty good job sanding, I only had to touch up a few scratches in the yellow.

Starting on the back I used some dark brown to form a ring around the edge, darkened the scroll and points. I then blended this to center using a circular motion. Then I took some alcohol on a clean rag and blended in circles from the center out to the edge. I have to say I was SUPER happy with the results.

Next I did the sides, I don't have an airbrush so I had to do my contouring here. I darkened the points and then used the alcohol to blend that to the curves of the side. I followed the same process for any other areas I needed shaded (tail, neck joint, scroll.)

I then did the back and sides of the headstock, followed by the neck joint, and you guessed it, I used alcohol to blend these two points to the center of the neck. After this I followed with some shading on the sides of the headstock.

Next up was the front. I knew the spruce would take the stain differently, I had not idea how differently it would. I am not quite sure if I am happy with this finish, it has a great antique patina look, but it is for sure a bit more splotchy than anywhere else. What is interesting is that there is some serious grain curls going around in the recurve which is leading to a lighter line in this area.

Lastly, I used a paint brush to darken the inside edges of the F holes, and any missed nooks or hard to reach areas.

The next morning I did another pass, getting my dark areas darker. I am going to sit with this for a bit, I am really happy with most of it, I need to figure out if I like the top or not.

With the stain where I wanted it it was time to get ready to spray.

I started by using some grain filler on the headstock to fill in those gaps, this went pretty easy. I used some spare plastic to apply and scrape smooth. I then sanded with 400 grit and repeated twice. After this dried I decided to darken the headstock a bit with some brown stain, I was really happy about this choice as it let the inlay show a bit better.

I was concerned about spraying for two reasons. 1) I was using aerosol spray, so much of the stuff I have read was specific to using a spray gun. 2) I don't have a spray booth, I would have to do this outside, which means dust, pollen, and weather. As with many things in this build in my 1 bedroom apartment, I had to take what I could get so I stopped stressing and started spraying.

I put a hook in the roof of my porch and one in my closet, I figured if I built a mandolin I could handle some spackle. I bent a wire hanger to hold the mandolin. The plan was to spray outside, let it cure for a hour or so until not as smelly and dangerous then move to my closet for the rest of the cure time.

I used Colortone Aerosol Nitrocellulose Sanding Sealer and Clear Varnish. I would soak the cans in hot water for 10 minutes before use and shake for at-least 1 minute before spraying. My spray schedule consisted of the following;

• 3 Coats of sanding sealer with 4 hours between coats
• Wait 24 hours
• Level sand the sealer with 400 grit
• 3 Coats of varnish with 4 hours between coats
• Wait 24 hours
• Scuff sand the dust and whatnot off of the varnish, level land any sags or drips
• Repeat the varnish process until 12 coats are applied.

I had to do much less level sanding than expected, the heated lacquer went on even and thin which made me very happy. After a handful of coats I was feeling much better about my anxieties and just slowly worked the process.

I have to say, it was quite exciting to see this thing getting some shine (and to be able to handle it without staining my hands) and I was pretty happy with the end result. I hope I have a thick enough layer to support the finish sanding and buffing in a few weeks.

Now it is time for this thing to rest for a few weeks and it will be time to polish it all to hopefully a mirror finish.

After 17 grueling days without an after work build activity and trying to forget this was hanging in my closet it was finally time to sand and buff. I had 2 days to get it done before a massive heat wave hit Seattle. I did not want to use the elbow grease in 100+ temps, and I was concerned it would soften the finish.

I made some slightly soapy water in a dish and soaked a series of micromesh for ~6hours before starting.

I was super concerned about sanding through and needing to wait another two weeks so I started with 1400 micromesh backed with a foam block. There was a good bit of orange peel which I managed to whack down a good bit, but I didn't go overboard and was hopeful it would get resolved with further grits.

After a few grits I had the process down and started feeling more confident with my technique. “Avoid the edges, don't press too hard, take breaks, rinse and wet the paper more than you think you would need, inspect often” I took my time, followed all the advice I read and managed to get up to 12000 grit without too much issue.

I did sand through in one spot on the side where the 90 degree angle of the bottom point meets the curve, but it is fairly hidden so I am not too worried about it.

After lots of inspection in the sunlight I finished hitting any rough patches with the 1200 and moved on to buffing. At this point the finish was looking great and I considered not even needing to buff, but I had the stuff so I figured I would give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did. I skipped the medium and fine compounds and went right to swirl remover, and that one seemed to be the correct grit after 12000. Using lots of elbow grease, time and compound I buffed up the entire finish and I was amazed. Like everything else on this mandolin, it isn't perfect but it is WAY better than I ever expected it to come out.

I am waiting for the heat wave to pass before putting the hardware back on, then it is time to play this thing until it comes alive.

It was finally time to finish the project. I would be lying if I didn't say I was a bit sad to be done. This project was fun, frustrating, therapeutic, time-consuming, thought-consuming, messy, and all-in-all an amazing experience. As I have said many times, it is far from perfect, but it has blown away my expectations, both in how the finished mandolin looks, and also how it sounds and plays. My initial goal was to finish the project with something that sounds like a mandolin, I far exceeded that with a mandolin that I am ridiculously proud of, and sounds better than anything else I own. This was a journey in learning, building, and getting comfortable with accepting imperfection.

I could not have done it without constant searching on mandolincafe forums, videos from Rosa Stringworks, the Don MacRostie, and a YouTube video from Anne Of All Trades that convinced me to jump in and give it a shot. This also would not have been possible without a deeply understanding and encouraging fiancée that was willing to not only put up with but to be excited about wood-shavings, sawdust, tools, and clamps all over our apartment.

Lessons Learned

Setting my goals and intentions from the beginning: Approaching this project with the mentality that the goal was to finish, not perfection is why I was able to finish. I could easily have stalled out, burned out, or got hung up by making sure everything is perfect.

There are a thousand ways to do ANYTHING: On every step and even the order of steps I researched other luthiers processes, and folks have super strong, and often opposing opinions as to the correct way to accomplish them. Finding the way, or combining approaches for what worked for me and my setup was super important, but sometimes I just had to pick one and jump. Staining was a great example, ultimately I went with the Rosa method because it made the most sense to me, and I could watch him do it on YouTube on a bunch of different mandolins. On the forums folks love to argue the optimal way to handle any step but keeping my intention in mind, I managed to avoid analysis paralysis.

Physical projects are a fantastic divergence from work: Having a project that I could sit down 1 hour or 8 hours and make visible, tangible progress was an amazing break from my work. In my work so much focus is on planning, tracking, and execution against timelines for work that may not bear visible change for months. Breaking from that to something without deadlines, that can be taken in my time, and any time spent had a visible impact was deeply therapeutic.

Each step has it's own skills: While there were base skills that were built throughout the project such as working with grain, and understanding how to cut, shape, sand, wood each step required some research, and gathering understanding of a new skill.

Power Tools are fast, but mistakes are faster: Next time around I won't be using a Dremel jig for the binding. I was dreading the hand routing in the scroll, but I was able to go slow enough that ended up great. The Dremel lead to tear out and unforeseen issues. I don't need to move fast, I have the luxury of taking my time and enjoying the project, in the future I will only use power tools as a last resort.

The Journal was Great: Keeping this journal kept me honest and allowed me the get closure and retrospect on each step. It was great when I was feeling frustrated or overwhelmed with the work to-go. When those feelings would arise, I could look back at the work so-far and truly see how far I have come.

Hard things are SO MUCH FUN: There were many recommendations to start with an A-Style, but I wanted a F-Style, and I wanted to know how to make a scroll. I knew it would be harder, but I wanted the challenge, and that challenge is what made this project great. This mandolin literally has a good bit of my blood in it, but it figuratively has a good bit of myself in it. I had to push myself, commit to the scary big cuts, commit to the time to slowly plane a recurve, accept the mistakes, and all the stuff I learned along the way. This was all deeply engaging and entertaining, lot's of type-a fun when something came out well, lots of type-b fun after getting past something challenging or frustrating (binding anyone?)

I am sure there are more, which I will add as I think of them. I will also add some videos of playing after I get something recorded.