Day 5

Today was an interesting day. A little over half the day was spent designing the bracing pattern. Tom is a great thinker, and has come up with his own bracing pattern. We looked at different luthier's bracing patterns, their functions, and looked at his bracing. We spent a long time discussing the physics of the braces, looking at each of the braces, and how that would allow the top to vibrate, We will see all of this in the braced tops when we test them in Al Caruth's lab. After that, we picked out our two tops that we are going to compare; one red spruce (a traditional guitar top wood) and white pine (an experimental wood). We planed them to thickness, and laid out the shape of the top on them. We are waiting on an order for hot hide glue to come in so we can start glueing on braces. Hide glue is a pretty awesome glue, and is used a lot in guitar making. It is made from animals, as the name suggests, and also it is a hot glue (as the name also suggests). You heat the glue, and when applied to braces it cools very quickly and crates a solid glue joint as soon as it cools. The best part of the glue is that to take a glue joint apart all you have to do is re-heat the glue and it will come apart. On sunday, I will be attending a Luthier's Guild meeting and demonstration. More on that on sunday. (along with my weekly reflection) Also you should check back for pictures because I will probably insert some then as well, because we took a bunch, but they are all with Tom at the moment.