Sharpening blades

Since I didn't have a stone I decided to try the "scary sharp" method off sharpening my blades. I bought different grit sandpaper and had a local glass company make me some glass panes. I used spray adhesive and glued the grits on the glass. I let it dry for a day and then proceeded to sharpen my plane blades.

Planing the back

It's time to thickness the back and top. Thickness sanders are expensive, and powered thickness planing will shatter the hardwood less than 1/8". That's ok, I want to hand plane this myself. First, I rough cut the shape of the guitar 1/2" oversided on the bandsaw. Second, I took a measurement of the thickness before I started hand planing the top. Third, I planed, and planed, and planed. I got some pretty serious tearout in places and this is where I decided that my plane blades were dull. Unfortunately, I didn't have a large enough stone to sharpen the blades easily. So, instead of creating a bunch of problems that would be difficult to fix I shelved the thicknessing for the day.

Plate joining

So I've got my materials ready. Now it's time to join the back and the top. I used a hand plane and improvised a shooting board to join the two halves of the guitar back. I followed Cumpiano's directions and the back passed the "candle" test. If you don't know what the candle test is I'll tell you. When you get the back joined and hold the two pieces together there should be no light shining through the joint. I then made a simple pressure clamp and used the weight of a large hand plane to hold the wood down while glueing. Don't forget to put newspaper underneath the wood so it doesn't stick to the table. I followed the same steps to join the top. Now, on to thicknessing!