Rosette from purfling

[cactus bum]

The other day I asked Taffy where he bought the beautifully simple and elegant herringbone rosette on his latest guitar. He said he made it from herringbone purfling. It seems to me a straight purfling is very difficult to bend the "wrong way." I am wondering if anyone would reveal how this is done. The purfling is laid down flat, and not on edge. Maybe in the Antipodes the laws of physics, wood compression, etc. are different.

ps I find doing a sucessful search in the ANZLF archives is difficult, so my question appears here as a new topic.

A number of good photos of Taffys excellent new guitar with herringbone rosette can be found under the topic "Finished at Last, New Build."
Thanks in advance to replies, Cactus

[WaddyT]

Straight purfling:


Plus Hot Iron:


Plus Careful Bending


Plus assembly + Success!

[Allen]

When I've used herringbone purfling for a rosette, I always have a dummy rosette channel cut in some mdf. I will either use the hot pipe, or hair drier to coax it into shape. Pressing it in the channel in the mdf and let cool. Sometimes with a weight on it to keep it flat.

I don't use a good spruce top at this stage as they are far too delicate and I want to make sure everything is going to fit before I take a chance on stuffing up the edge of the rout.

[Hesh1956]

In addition to bending it, or trying to, some builders will split one side off with a very sharp razor blade and then bend the two halves and reassemble. I have not done it but John How for those of you who know him is who posted this technique on another forum.

[kiwigeo]

When I've used herringbone purfling for a rosette, I always have a dummy rosette channel cut in some mdf. I will either use the hot pipe, or hair drier to coax it into shape. Pressing it in the channel in the mdf and let cool. Sometimes with a weight on it to keep it flat.

I do a full dummy run for my steel string rosettes use a plastic cutting block. Heres the paua/purfling rossette in progress on my 12 string. Not in the picture is two runs of BWB purfling around the paua.

[Nick]

Heshie,Heshie,Heshie. Your Avatar.......... that's not, no it can't be......Lillian & Martin's love child?

[Lillian]

Heshie,Heshie,Heshie. Your Avatar.......... that's not, no it can't be......Lillian & Martin's love child?

Nick, we had hope no one would notice. Oh well, I guess everyone else figured it out too.

[Alfred J]

Love Waddy's rozette. I've used a 4 inch diameter pipe to bend similar purfling with good results, but I haven't tried the method Allen and Kiwigeo use. Good idea!

This is important: Don't wet it. Just carefully bend it dry. By that I mean, don't heat it longer than necessary.

[Steve]

Hi Cactus - in ignorance I made this rosette out of herringbone purfling by soaking it in warm water for a few minutes, splitting a piece in half & winding all the bits around a glass jar to dry out. It's nowhere as flash as the other ones here, but is pretty straight-forward to do. If you wind the bits up together, they seem to sit on their edge okay.

Steve

[WaddyT]

The stuff I made bends very easily. If it starts to separate, you can just squeeze it back together, and it's fine. Probably the TiteBond.

[cactus bum]

Thank you one and all. It seems possible to me now. I have done some bending, but the thinness of the purfling plus the fact it is glued up from many pieces put the fear in me. Now I know it can be done with care and not too much fuss. ciao, Cactus