I decided that trying my first bookmatched top with 40" long seam was heroic at best, so I thought I'd start out smaller. I had bought a large piece of "rescue" catalpa from my friends at Community Forklift when the bandsaw was new and tried my hand at resawing. I got some clean, narrow pieces, but the saw wasn't tuned up enough to cut 10" wide tops and bottoms from it. I put the booked matches 1/4" sheets aside as the had lots of pin knots as well.
I got them out yesterday and found a clean section long enough to be the top for a cigar box instrument. I had cut a couple of ukulele necks from mahogany left over from the mooncake mandoline project. I purchased a section of thick counter top of Communtiy Forklift to be the auxiliary table for use my Safe-T-planer on the drill press.
Its dead flat and real rigid. I jointed the 1/4" plates using a simple shooting board and plane, then 150 grit sandpaper sitting on top of my (you guessed it) Community Forklift granite counter top. They were then "tented" over a paintstick and the edges trapped between some finishing nails driven into a piece of flat scrap plywood. Tightbond II for the center seam, and a couple of dead lead acid batteries to hold the seam down while drying. I then thicknessed the top on the Safe-T-planar to 0.100".
The picture above is after light sanding with 150 grit to remove most of the mill marks (I was getting late for work) and then some mineral spirits to look at the figuring. The wood is a beautiful butterscotch color. a mahogany grain structure, and a lovely tap tone. I'm getting there!!
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