The saw I made to saw out the Marquetry guitar.

[george wilson]

I'll re post the marquetry guitar in case some haven't seen it. It was made entirely by hand while I was the musical instrument maker in Williamsburg. I made this deep throat saw from yew wood. Yew is the most delightful wood to work. It looks like a soft,cedary type of wood,and is not real heavy. It is quite hard,though,and I enjoy carving it.

The saw has little chucks on each end of the blade. It uses jeweler's saw blades. The blades can be rotated completely.

The saw was deep enough to encompass the body of the guitar. It took some getting used to,though. A small,thin jeweler's saw blade will break in an instant if it is bent at all.

The joints where the arms of the saw meet the cross bar are fitted so that they can pivot up and down some,to tighten the blade. The joints have holes drilled on either side of the joints,so that linen string could be whipped through them to hold the joints from falling apart.

I have 2 more of these saws at home that I need to finish. Personally,I like the linen whipping. There is linen string at the back end of the saw,too,where the tightening stick is. The stick is held in place by whipping in the shape of an "X",which you can make out.

The marquetry was done by sawing through a white holly veneer,and a brown walnut veneer that were spot glued together. I glued a layer of tough Caslon Vidalon parchment style tracing paper to each layer of veneer to keep the thin vines and tracery work from falling apart. After the marquetry layer was glued to a base layer,the paper was sanded off. All the sawing was done at a simple "bird's mouth" piece of wood clamped sticking straight out of the tail vise of my bench. I was sitting at a foot stool,so that the veneer was just below eye level as I sawed it. Of course,just a few feet away was the public,asking questions. Needless to say,one has to get used to working with people a few feet away.

I was in my early 30's when the guitar was made. If you want to know more,this guitar is permanently posted in the Neanderthal FAQ section,but you have to be a contributor to access it. Or,you could search for the marquetry guitar posting by me.

By the way,I never said that this guitar was the "pinnacle of woodworking." That would indeed have been a bold,over reaching claim. Another bad picture,as you can see.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Incredible work! Now that guitar is by far the most beautiful I've seen, a stunner! Did you have a pattern or is that piece of art your design? I'd love to see some more pics of this instrument.

The yew wood was the perfect choice -probably the single suitable choice- to make such a deep throated bow saw. I don't know any other wood that is such tenacious to stand the stresses of such a deep saw. And I agree, yew is a pure pleasure to work with.

Klaus

[george wilson]

I have found more pictures(slides) of the guitar,though the pictures shown in the FAQ section were professionally taken,and you get both front and rear views.

Klaus,I think I haven't yet scanned the extra slides of the guitar. There are so many slides I have just begun to scan some today.

These are a few photos of left over drawings for cutting out the marquetry patterns. I had forgotten to mention that I would glue these patterns to the top side of the veneer stack,and saw along the lines. In some cases,I improved the drawn designs as I sawed.

P.S.,Klaus: I have looked,and found 9 more slides of the guitar which I need to scan and will post at some time. I'm pretty tired right now. I also have a number of other carousels to look through.

You have an attitude like mine: when you see some nice work,you want to study it and learn from it. Then,you mull it around in your brain,and some day out comes an idea of your own that was influenced by that work you may have seen long ago. Your work influences me! That is the way one should react.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you so much, George! This guitar is such a wonderful work, I can only guess how much skill, experience, art and time went in it. You have to be very proud on it. And please don't care if there are jealousies on this kind of work. If someone doubt's that you have done what you show, it's kind of ridiculous to my ears. Please never forget: jealousy is hard to get, you have to work good and hard to get it. Pitifulness you will get for free.

Klaus

[Mark Baldwin III]

Where's the matching Marshall stack? ;)
Truly a gorgeous piece, George. I'm not even sure I'd want to know the number of hours that go into something like that.

[george wilson]

Klaus,I just scanned the other slides of the guitar,including 1 of me(my fingers) sawing out the pierced boxwood peghead. I'll post them tomorrow for you and others who might want to see more details

P.S.: I am still waiting for my wife to come home so we can eat. She goes to the gym every evening to work out. Anyway,there are the shots of my long guitar fingernails holding down the boxwood (buxbaum ?) piercing,and what it looked like in the guitar. Those long nails are really good for holding down very small parts when sawing or filing. My left hand has short nails.

I could have carved it more into the round,but,after all, I could only spend so much time on a given instrument since we had a long waiting list.

The design s the same design as on the body of the guitar. Just less detailed to fit into a smaller space.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

beautiful. I've been thinking about marquetry lately. This gives something to aspire too, that's for certain.

The saw is very cool.

Just looking at the larger photos in the post linked in the FAQ, and I'm stunned. I like the design work that's gone into the inlay. I can't imagine inlaying a curved surface like that guitar neck - I've had enough difficulty with fretboards!

[Dale Coons]

amazing....just amazing.

[ray hampton]

how many hours do the average guitar or other musical instruments take to do from the start to the end, I recall something close to 150 hours ? is this guitar a wall hanger or do it get play

[Richard Wolf]

Amazing George, what a life time of work you have produced, all beautiful work. I happened to run across a video of you from 1976, Williamsburg, building harpsichord and violin. You were a handsome lad 35 years ago.

[george wilson]

When I was young,and had few tools,I could make a classical guitar with only a bandsaw and drill press for power tools,in 2 weeks. This included hand planing the wood for the top,back,and sides.

I don't know how long the marquetry guitar took,because in a public exhibition shop you are constantly interrupted. Your desire to work is hurt by the interruptions too.

[Stewie Simpson]

Magnificient work George. Superb.

Regards; Stewie

[george wilson]

For Klaus,and others who might like to see it,here is 17th. C. work by Joachim Tielke in Hamburg,Germany that I DO consider the pinnacle of decorative arts. It is a guitar that was an inspiration to me. It is in the Victoria and Albert museum in London. The guitar has marquetry made from tortoise shell and sheets of ivory. The centers of some of the flowers are made of little squares of silver and pewter,and perhaps other materials. I was able to examine this guitar closely. It is magnificent work,partly able to be this elaborate because the tortoise and ivory are more durable than wood,and can stand being delicately sawn without falling apart.

If only I had been able to see into the future! In the 70's,I could have bought large sheets of tortoise taken off of antique furniture that had fallen apart,from the Abbey Horn Works in England. These sheets would have been large enough to make a guitar from. The cost,at that time,was not terribly high,though the cost of ivory was. I would have had to saw a tusk into flat sheets in order to do this work,and it would have been costly,though doable. No one back then knew that tortoise would become banned,and ivory would become greatly more expensive. Also,ivory must be certified as pre 1972. I have some such material,but no old tortoise sheets.

Anyway,this was the marquetry I looked to for my inspiration. Probably from a large shop full of specialists who undertook the engraving,sawing,etc.. I do not know that Tielke himself did the work,or was the master designer. Some of the highest class workshops were maintained by royalty such as the Hapsburgs did. Later on,Napoleon maintained some of these shops in the Louvre to produce master works for himself.

In the great scheme of history,my work looks like an amateur did it! It is well to educate yourself by looking at truly great work,and learning what you can from it.

This guitar took not only the highest level of artistic skill,but incredible energy to make. Energy reinforced by not wanting to starve in those days. People worked MUCH harder,and much longer hours than we do today. Being a craftsman was a very demanding life. You lived from hand to mouth. The master of the shops kept after his workmen to be as productive as he could make them be.

[Jack Curtis]

Do these magnificent guitars sound as good as they look?

Jack

[george wilson]

The early guitars often have vaulted backs,made like barrel staves,as does this one. The backs were thus very stiff,and did not vibrate,serving to contain the air volume of the guitar. They did not contribute to the tone of the guitar.

Violins are different. A great deal of energy is pumped into them by the continuous bowing rather than a single pluck. So,arched violins do get sound from both the tops and backs. My marquetry guitar sounded just as good as any other. The soundboards were never covered with extensive inlay. Guitar soundboards vibrate mostly between the bridge and the sound hole. They should not be encumbered with inlay in that region,though some are,and were.

[Jack Curtis]

Thanks, George.

Jack

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you for showing this piece, George. It is wonderful. But to be honest: yours doesn't stand behind. To my eyes yours shows mor visual balance, I'd say a tad more harmony. Nevertheless this one is a gorgeous piece of art as well.

Klaus

[george wilson]

I am glad you saw the Tielke guitar,Klaus. There is also the design and visual balance,it is true. With the highly developed eye for form that you have,I am glad to have your compliment.

[Chuck Walker]

Fantastic and intricate marquetry! I am curious however, about your saw of yew wood. From the photo it looks to have a throat of 15 or 16 inches but that is just a guess based on an assumed blade length of around 5 inches. The added length of the tensioning mechanism must add several more inches. Does this added length and weight make the saw difficult to use?

[David Weaver]

To my eyes yours shows mor visual balance, I'd say a tad more harmony.

Klaus

That's funny, I mentioned the same, though not in exactly those words. But because while I understand what's so good about the second guitar, my eyes don't automatically like it as much.

[george wilson]

The saw is a bit of a challenge to use if you are using .006" thick 6/0 jeweler's saw blades,thinner than a whisker. Just get used to it.

[jamie shard]

Thank you for showing this piece, George. It is wonderful. But to be honest: yours doesn't stand behind. To my eyes yours shows mor visual balance, I'd say a tad more harmony. Nevertheless this one is a gorgeous piece of art as well.

Klaus

+1

I agree, George your guitar blew me away when I opened this thread... but the other guitar (though a masterpiece no doubt) is "too much" for me. Thank you for all the trouble that goes into posting these images!

-jamie

[John Coloccia]

The saw is a bit of a challenge to use if you are using .006" thick 6/0 jeweler's saw blades,thinner than a whisker. Just get used to it.

6/0? Wow...I use 4/0 for inlay work and I thought that was pretty fiddly. Are 6/0 blades period? Where they able to make blades like that back then? If not, how would they have done this kind of work?

[george wilson]

There were various techniques for making small blades back then. A few are described in some of the old 19th.C. books,like Holtzapffel.1 way was to chisel small teeth on a wire. Another was to file teeth on a watch spring with a triangular needle file,using a simple technique to move the file for each tooth. The craftsmen who made such things as blades developed remarkable skill as this was all they ever did day after day,or starve. Not much playing at something,and working longer hours than we do today,and more days per week.