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I'm sure some ways are easier than others, anyone got any hot tips on how to make them easier?

Are you asking about miters in binding/purfling? And are you asking about easy ways to get accurate fit of the joints?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Yes/yes. I get it in the end, but I think there must be easy ways to do it...order of operations etc...

Have you tried the trick of polishing the back of the chisel and using it as a mirror to make the 45 degree cuts easier to line up?

Yes, that helps for sure with just the purflings alone, though only in one plane. The one that still gives me the most grief is the compound angle mitre on cutaway backs at the heel. I feel there must be a technique beyond futzing around til you get it. Some logical aha way...

I don't know if the approach I'm using is different from how you do it or if it would work for your compound miter joint in the cutaway, but for cutting mitered ends of binding, I always sneak up on the final cut with a series of very thin cuts with the chisel.

For the first binding end of the joint, I nip the binding 1/8" to 3/16" longer than its final length and then make a series of thin chisel cuts (about the thickness of a business card) to gradually shorten the excess length. This accomplishes two things. The thin cuts give straight controllable cuts with clean sharp edges with no flaring and they allow me to dial in the miter angle and then the vertical angle of the cut before making the final cut. For the first couple cuts in the series, I use the mirrored chisel trick to establish the miter angle, then I do a few more cuts keeping that miter angle while concentrating on getting the vertical cut perpendicular.

For the end of the second binding piece of the joint, I cut it a little long too and then do the same series of gradual thin cuts to sneak up on the final cut. The first few cuts are used to dial in the miter angle to exactly match that of the first binding piece and then the last couple cuts are used to get the cut at that mitered angle vertical. The series of cuts effectively serves as practice to zero in on both final cut angles. I use this approach on miter joints where the final cut has to be in exactly the right position with the correct miter and vertical angles and it works for me.

How do you go about making that joint now?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I futz around on the ridgid belt sander til it's passable. Which is annoying cause I feel there must be a technique/system to get it one and done...

Gosh, a belt sander is hardly a precision approach! Like others, I sneak up with an ultra-sharp chisel. It does get easier with practice — lots of it. Be prepared to start over.


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Sneaky ultra-sharp chisel here too.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

You could make a specific mitre box for your purfling/binding sizes.

Take the time to make the jig. Make sure the X-Y-Z axis’ are square where they need to be...


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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

It does seem like it should be a jiggable task...

What tool would you use to cut the binding in the miter box? I tried the miter box approach early on for mitered binding joints at the sound hole end of the fretboard. I used an x-acto extra-fine razor saw and just couldn't get nice sharp edges on the cut ends of the binding like I can get with a chisel so the joints were not as tight as I wanted. Is there a better saw for that purpose?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

You’d still want to use a chisel for the cut. But if you can support the binding/purfling piece well, the chisel just needs to follow the Z axis, if the jig is made well.


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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

The black rhino is a helpful tool...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Black-Rhino ... /206950679

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Kent Everett loves this tool... and so do I.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Dang Steve, I thought you were joking. When I was in Kent's shop several years ago I did my best to check out every tool he was using, I missed that one.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I can see how that would do a 45 on the outside face, but how does that help in the vertical plane?

It’s also hard to beat a disk sander...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com