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Wilson Burnham Guitars
New Substack Post
Part one of how to become a better woodworker on SubStack.
My Dutch Tool Chest
It is exciting that there is a new book out on how to build a Dutch Style Tool Chest, I know that many beginning woodworkers will want to try their hand at making one.
I built one in April 2019 to prepare for a move, we moved from our wonderful little cabin in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains to the Denver metro area. The move was job motivated.
This tool box was nice, but every time I moved it from one studio to the next, I had to empty it of all the tools, put it in my FJ Cruiser, then reload the tools. The process was reversed to place it in the new space.
After using it for several months, I realized I should have made the chest deeper to accommodate my Stanley No.5 jack plane, tool totes, and several other tools. And it could have been at least 18 inches taller.
The DTC at my studio at 40 West Arts, Lakewood, Colorado, circa 2020.
One thing I didn’t like about the chest was the lid had this bad habit of slamming shut if I bumped the main body. It was rare for me to close the lid, I always needed access to my hand tools. And because I didn’t make the chest deep enough, I never put the front panel on, to do that I had to rearrange all the tools on the lower shelves.
My Dutch Tool Chest today.
Several months ago, I removed the lid, cut off the angles of the angled sides and added to the sides and bottom of the carcase to make the box deeper. The lid got an extra piece of wood to make it deeper also, and now it is the fixed top of the chest. Down the road, I plan on adding some drawers to it and adding a taller base that will also have a drawer or two, but right now I am too busy building classical guitars to take the time to make this a decent chest of drawers.
As you can see in the above photo, all the tools that were in the original chest are now on the wall in easy reach. Sure, I have to dust the tools occasionally, but I really, really like this set up.
Would I ever make a Dutch Style Tool Chest again? I doubt it.
I hope that you like the DTC that you make!
Woodworking in a Tiny Shop
I make classical guitars in a small workshop, well perhaps I should say I work in a tiny workshop. Actual working space is 9 feet wide by 13 feet long (117 square feet), there is additional space at the back of the room that is 9 feet wide by 7 feet long (63 square feet) and half of that space is occupied by the well head, well pump and pressure tank.
Photos of one of my most recent classical guitars, this guitar has a Western red cedar top with Santos rosewood back and sides.
This is my space:
Tool racks for the hand tools I use on a daily basis, a set of low shelves and new workbench that accumulates workshop detritus.
Here you can see the back wall of my shop, on the other side of that short wall that the air cleaner sits on is the well head, well pump and pressure tank for our house. My best tonewood is on the metal shelves.
The shop looking towards the sliding glass door. To the right is my workbench that I originally built in 1994 and has been renovated several times. The guitar that is hanging up has a Western red cedar top with East Indian rosewood back and sides, those tonewoods are over 20 years old and this guitar has an elevated fretboard.
I do get asked why I use only hand tools to make my guitars. It is a choice I made when I first started down the lutherie road and small spaces like this aren’t suited for power tools.
My favorite hand plane with a toothed blade. This side is California Laurel that will be part of the next guitar.
“No! Try not! Do or do not! There is no try!” That is what Yodo said to Luke Skywalker in “The Empire Strikes Back”. That movie line is still valid today.
If you can’t make something in a small shop with simple hand tools, then there is a good chance you won’t be able to make something is a huge shop filled with power tools.
Handcrafting a Classical Guitar Neck, Taos, New Mexico
Machine cuts can distract us and for some it becomes lifelong to use machines only. Those advocating them as the better path influence others on a major scale and so then the path in life we’ve chosen for ourselves gets distorted. Even now, after over a half century of daily furniture making, someone out there, someone who just doesn’t get it, who cannot get it and may never get it, tries to persuade me that machines are the better choice.
Paul Sellers, woodworker
When I was a real little kid, like four years old, my dad built a small shed in the backyard of the house, and my parents were a little slow in putting shingles on the roof. One day I decided that I would finish the work myself, because I had watched mom and dad nail the shingles onto the skip sheathing, and in my mind that meant I know what to do. With hammer in hand and my own nail bag full of nails I crawled up on the roof and started swatting nails into those lovely thin pieces of sugar pine. This banging brought my parents out of the house, and when they saw what I was doing, I was ordered to climb down and surrender hammer and nails. I was then scolded about being on the roof by myself, and that I was putting on the shingles all wrong! One doesn’t shingle a roof by starting at the ridge beam! I presented a strong argument as to why that method would work, but my speech was cut short and I was ordered to my room. This was the beginning of my love affair with hand tools.
I did become a professional carpenter when I was thirty five years old, I was out of work and had just moved in with my girlfriend (we celebrated our twenty sixth wedding anniversary this year!) and the only decent work available at the time was construction. It was hard work that I took pride in and I eventually bought over five thousand dollars worth of power tools that I used as a framing and finish carpenter, some of those power tools are in the workshop. I bought these tools at the time I was getting serious about becoming a full time guitar maker and I made it a habit NOT to use those tools to build guitars. Speed, power and noise don’t always equal efficiency, and I didn’t have the workshop space to have a bunch of stationary power tools.
The studio workshop I occupy is just under 130 square feet in size. Hand tools are the practical solution, though I do own several routers that I use for routing binding channels and creating pockets on guitar tops for honeycomb NOMEX.
Today, I started making guitar neck. I laid out where to cut the headstock on the blank which was sized by hand with a Lie-Nielsen No.62 hand plane. The blank I clamped to the workbench with two holdfasts and then I went at the stuff with a vintage Henry Disston and Sons miter saw that has a four inch deep web.
This saw is longer than a guitar neck!
The final sanding was done of 220 grit and…
…here the finished scarf joint. All done by hand, no power tools, with patience and experience. I know that there are classical guitar makers that cut this joint on a table saw with a fancy jig.
Scarf joint all glued and clamped.
I do use a table saw and sliding compound miter saw to reduce neck stock, the piece of wood in the background of the above photo will be thinned to about 21mm on the table saw. For the final thickness I will plane it by hand, then cut out the heel blocks on the miter saw.
Here are photos of the California laurel back and the curly redwood top that will be paired with this neck.
My Short List of Books on The Classical Guitar and Classical Guitar Construction
This is NOT a definitive list of books about the classical guitar and how to make them. I have all of these books in my personal library and I find that they cover the best of what is the classical guitar. This list is simply a starting point if you are interested in the history of classical guitar and its construction methods. I highly recommend that you join the Guild of American Luthiers , here you can learn about all sorts of stringed instrument making, and you should visit Orfeo Magazine to learn more about the classical guitar of the 20th and 21st centuries. I started this list about the year 2012 after I gave a few lectures to classical guitar students at several universities in Colorado. Please feel free to share this list!
Books on Classical Guitar Construction
Courtnall, Roy. (1993) Making Master Guitars. London, England: Robert Hale.
Cumpiano, William. (1993) Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
Doubtfire, Stanley. (1983) Make Your Own Classical Guitar. New York, NY: Schocken Books.
Middleton, Rik. (1997) The Guitar Maker’s Workshop. Rambsury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England: The Crowood Press Ltd.
Overholtzer, Arthur. (1974) Classic Guitar Making. San Francisco, CA: Brock Publishing Company
Romanillos, Jose. (2013) Making A Spanish Guitar. Guijosa, Spain: RH Publications.
Sloane, Irving. (1989) Classic Guitar Construction. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.
Books on the Classical Guitar
Bermudez, Egberto, et al. (1991) The Spanish Guitar. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Cleveland, Russell, et al. (2002) The Classical Guitar, A Complete History. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books.
Evans, Tom and Mary Ann. (1977) Guitars: From The Renaissance to Rock. Over Wallop, Hampshire, UK: BAS Printers Ltd.
George, David. (1969) The Flamenco Guitar. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.
Gordon, Stefano. (2001) Masterpieces of Guitar Making. Sondrio, Italy: L’Officina del Libro.
Huber, John. (1991) The Development of the Modern Guitar. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.
Oribe, Jose. (1985) The Fine Guitar. Pacific, MO.: Mel Bay Publications.
Ramirez, Amalia. (2006) 125th Anniversary, Jose Ramirez. Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Casa Ramirez.
Ramirez, Jose. (1990) Things About the Guitar. Madrid, Spain: Soneto Ediciones Musicales.
Ray, John, et al. (2014) The Granada School of Guitar-Makers. Granada, Spain: Diputación de Granada.
Rodriguez, Manuel. (2003) The Art and Craft of Making Classical Guitars. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation.
Romanillos, Jose. (1990) Antonio de Torres: Guitar Maker-His Life & Work. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.
Urlik, Sheldon. (2015) A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Sunny Knoll Publishing.
Wade, Graham. (2001) A Concise History of the Classic Guitar. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.
Periodicals on the Classical Guitar and Its Construction
American Lutherie. Tacoma, WA: Guild of American Luthiers.
Guitar Review. New York, NY: Classical Guitar Society of New York.
The Guitar Maker of Taos, New Mexico: Visit My Online Storefront!
I am very excited to announce that I have a new online storefront at Luthier Bench, a new Online Marketplace and Knowledge Base for Luthier Built Guitars! Please visit my store to see some of my latest guitars.
I will continue to sell guitars through Savage Classical Guitar! Rich Sayage, the owner of Savage Classical Guitar, is a great guy and an amazing guitarist! I am very fortunate to work with him!
I also updated Guitars Currently Available on this site.
Currently listed at my storefront are two guitars, a Western Red Cedar/Santos Rosewood double top classical guitar and a circa 1832 René Lacôte style European Spruce/California Laurel Romantic Era “guitare à la Sagrini”. Guitar specifications are listed along with sound samples.
