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




Monday 8 November 2010

Time to get started on this new guitar!

I am revisiting using hot hide glue. I have learnt that a lot of the struggle that I have had with this glue in the past is that I was using a too high a strength preparation! The strength ratings are related to how hard the glue dries, and the harder/stronger it is the faster it starts to set up! DUH! My issues with the glue were a too short open/working time. Now that I am using the correct strength of glue my working time is just fine, and all is well.

Hot hide glue, or hhg as luthiers often refer to it when writing about it, does not require intense clamping pressure-as long as the surfaces are properly prepared and close fitting. So this traditional method works just fine. The wood is placed tightly together and masking tape is placed across the joint. Then the wood is lifted into this tent like position and the glue is applied along the joint.

The wood is then placed back flat, which brings the glue joint tightly closed, and more tape is placed across the joint to hold it secure.

Left to dry overnight, the tape is removed. and the spruce guitar top is ready to be thicknessed. Oh, not to final dimensions just yet, but cleaned up emough for the rosette to be made and installed. THEN it can be prepared to final thickness.

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