Back braced...

I used a radius dish to sand my braces to the proper radius. Once, I got them sanded I made sure the fit was fairly tight to the back graft. Then I glued them down with the gobar. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

Getting ready to brace...

Here's the back graft after the glue dried. I used blue tape to protect the back so I could use a plane to straighten up the graft. It also protected the back from the chisels. Also to the right is the graft after I chiseled out the grooves for the braces.

Back Graft

I decided to use maple instead of spruce for the back graft. I had some decently figured maple so I decided to use it. I only had pieces of the maple so I glued th back graft down in pieces.

Thicknessed!

I attacked the back and top plates with the freshly sharpened planes. Wow, what a difference. Scary sharp method definately works. What a difference. I finished up planing and scraping.

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!