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Has anyone attempted to join 2 thin purflings into one thick one?

The Aliexpress purfling is great but they are too thin, being only 1.5mm deep (like .05"). That's way too thin to use as backstrip.

And the Chinese does not make anything thicker. Rosette is very thin, .8mm thick, purfling and backstrip is also extremely thin (never more than 1.2mm thick). I spent hours looking on Aliexpress and they do not offer anything thicker than 1.5mm for purfling, 1.2mm for backstrip, and 1.5mm for binding. Very easy to mess up if you are not careful.

I wonder anyone tried joining 2 of them together to make a thicker one?

The problem is, the Aliexpress purfling is like really cheap, like 1/10th the price of Stewmac ones. 3 or 4 dollars may not seem like much but a single guitar uses like 10 of them, and they add up very quickly. I'd be willing to pay double for a thicker piece but not 10 times the price.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I use thin purfling for backstrips. Are you inlaying the backstrip or trying to glue it between? I glue my back together and then use a straight edge as a router guide and cut a channel to fit whatever backstrip I am putting in perfectly (well, close enough). Works for me and being thin is okay.

At least the blacks or even browns (rosewood) double up without a tell.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

See this thread for photos of the rosette on one of my guitars:

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46253&hilit=herringbone

Even with brighter colors than the blacks and browns, you can get a pretty good field of color going by doubling or tripling thin veneers. Once you scrape it down flush and put a finish on it, it is very hard to see that it is multiple lines. Do a good job on preventing gaps and they look even better.

I meant the purfling height (to use where I need it to be higher to fill up headplates and stuff), not width.

I had to route/add it later on, otherwise I'd end up with a weak joint. I used my mill for the work, much safer than using a router with a straight edge in my opinion.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Tai, I deleted my first post when I realised you might be confusing width and height, in writing if not in your own mind.
Gluing purfling edge to edge may be a bit tricky, even if you have a mill.
The BWB chinese purfling I bought was 2.7mm high x 1.3 wide, saw some exactly same measurements again on ebay last weekend.
So someone there is still making higher purflings.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Can you send me a link where you got that? The ones I got is 1.5mm x 1.5mm. It's probably ok as top purfling but pretty much worthless for anything else.

I looked on ebay and all I seen is the 1.5mm x 1.5mm stuff, bwb purfling. No other dimension that isn't Stewmac.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Took me all of 20 seconds to find it again.....https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-pcs-violin-inly-purfling-wood-strip/231991771455?hash=item3603c9813f:g:CwoAAOSwoudW63bv

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Those are violin purfling... meaning the black is much thinner than the white part. The guitar ones is where the black is the same width as the white part, but they only have it 1.5mm high.

The violin purfling worked well for guitars?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

No, they're rubbish.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I found a supplier in the UK who sells those purfling for .45 pounds each...

Trouble is when I check out unlike most suppliers they don't list every single country in the world, but only have a short list of countries, and (no surprise) Taiwan is not listed.

Like everyone just thinks Taiwan is some backwater country like Tattooine or something...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

More like Jakku. Jakku is Tatooine without the glitter.

Actually, I always think of Taiwan as a pretty bustling place, from a commerce perspective. Half the stuff available to me as a US consumer seems to come from there. Maybe you can e-mail the UK retailer in question and get the order placed that way.

I'm doing that right now, only he's not in a big hurry to answer emails.

Last time I dealt with a UK supplier (was buying bandsaw blades, they had the size I want at a much better price than any US suppliers), they had the same problem, Taiwan's not listed. So he ended up creating a paypal invoice for it and I would go pay it.

While Taiwan is a big manufacturing country, it seems Taiwan has little to no internal markets, the entire economy is export orientated. So that means a lot of stuff made in Taiwan are NOT sold here, and only way for me to get it is re-import it from another country. There are some really stupid laws like excessive tax on nutritional supplements, so we pay 3x of what Americans pay for that. It's also why it's impossible for me to get Titebond original in Taiwan, no one uses them and the distributor here only carries II, III, and that stuff that comes in a caulk tube. I have to get TB Original from Aliexpress and still pay more than double of what they're sold in Taiwan for (1 gallon of TB II or III is 30 dollars here). If I got TB Original from the US I'd pay more than 10 times the price for it because it's so heavy.

So yea, as far as most other country is concerned, Taiwan might as well be Tattoine.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

With all the problems it seems to be to live I'm Taiwan with this kind of thing. Have you considered maybe relocating to the US?

Sounds pretty backwater to me.

Mill workswell . Routing with a bushing and slotted guide - does that job perfectly, as well. I rout my truss rod slots with a bushing guide, double stick tape down. It works like a champ.

Well, I haven't heard back from them. I guess that means he does not want my business.

I think maybe in the future I will buy from Allied Luthiery, their bwb purfling prices are a bit more reasonable than Stewmac (around a dollar rather than several dollars each).

I can't really do a whole lot about politics in Taiwan and please don't go telling me to move to the US or any other country. It's off topic and it's not as simple as "pack up and move".

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

You can judge for yourself

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Am I missing something? Looks like there are two different Colin North or 2 people are sharing 1 account.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

One and the same

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

So you showed pictures of rosettes made with it, but you said it was rubbish. But the rosette looks good to me. So would you mind pointing out why they're rubbish?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Actually I posted the sarcastically because of your STUPID question
I found your questioning or suggesting that I would direct ANYONE on this forum towards a product that did not meet my expectations or was not reasonably suitable for the purposes intended really insulting.

Especially so because I had said THIS in a very recent previous post which YOU started http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=52091&p=685255&hilit=I%27ve+been+happy+with+the+BWB+purlfing#p685255

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

You started complaining about Taiwan in a thread where you started to ask about purflings initially.

Hi Colin,
Thanks for posting the pictures of the rosettes. They help clarify how the purflings look when installed. The thin black lines almost disappear against the cedar(?) top (on my monitor) but still define the edge of the rosette. The black lines show up much better against the spruce. The white is nice and bright and might go well with the plastic bindings I use. The add said they are wood, do you know if this is the case? How easy were they to bend into the circles?
I bought a wax warmer similar to the one you talked about in a thread. So far it has worked well. I bought a single pot to save space on the bench, but the double pot (which you bought ) would probably be handier.

Glad the warmer worked out, and hope it holds out well, for my sake as well.
Purflings I have are fibre/maple/fibre, seem to be suspiciously similar to SM's violin purfling.
The maple is twice the width of the fibre.
Bends well, but I always waft it about in the steam from a boiling kettle, even for the waist of a guitar.
Warm water will separate it, I've tried.
The dark top is redwood, but even I've mixed it up with the cedar I have.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Building guitars is challenging enough. I get that.