Contact me at: rrcp@mts.net or by phone 204.878.2524

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Lots of stuff goes on in this shop, located in Lorette, Manitoba.

Primarily it's the building and repair of classic wood & canvas canoes, and the making of premium canoe paddles. I also do custom boat building, composite fabrication, and special projects. A growing passion of mine is the making of classical guitars, I'll post about that, too.


I want to be able to share with my clients the progress of their commissioned work. Later I started thinking that there might be other people who are interested in what goes on inside a wooden canoe shop operated by an artist and a recovering teacher.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by email, phone, or by post. My mailing address is:

Red River Canoe & Paddle
24249 River Rd
Lorette, Manitoba
Canada
R5K 0Z6




Saturday 20 November 2010

The `go bar`deck has become pretty much the standard method for gluing in the braces to the guitar top. I used to use an upper deck mounted about 24 inches above the solara but found it to be always in my way. So I got rid of it and now run longer go-bars against the ceiling. I just happen to to have a plate mounted there for when I canvas canoes, so I decided to work below it.

The braces serve to support the guitar top as it is subject to the stresses and torque of the string tension while allowing it to move as freely as possible. I am building this guitar following Torres patters, so fan bracing is being used.

After trying a variety of tools to carve the braces I am finding this little carving chisel to be my current favourite. It is very sharp and the slight bend in the blade allows excellent control of the cutting edge.

The braces are carved to a gable shape.

And then the ends are tapered. The soundhole opening is reinforced with a donut shaped piece of Spruce which has the grain running perpendicular to that of the guitar top.

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