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Glad to see you making blades again and I hope you are now fit and well! Great work as always

Hey Yogi-bear, 160mm x 151mm, handle is 100mm

There is often a lot of discussion on this forum about the positives and negatives of varnishing/sealing blades. The main positive being that it protects the blade from splintering. Another one, certainly, from the point of view of a blade maker is the difference in appearance as the colour and...

Marko - I think Hipnotic's suggestion is a good one. What I would say is that this being your first blade I wouldn't worry too much about the composition, perhaps keep your focus on developing the skills and processes for making a blade. There are lots of posts on how to do it which are listed...

Top quality work! Well done.

Thanks Hipnotic, I'm not really making blades at the moment as I've been too busy making guitars. This has led me to use shellac as my my main varnish, great stuff, much softer than PU varnish and gives a great finish when used to French polish. Also it's a great barrier against moisture. Not...

Although the exact quantity of ingredients in Tru-oil are a 'guarded secret' it is thought to be a blend of PU varnish, Tung oil and mineral spirits, so not really a straight oil based finish such as Tung, Teak or BLO. For me, I've never found a well thinned and light coat of PU varnish to cause...

This is the first blade I've made for a year or so. I made the handles a while ago and never got around to using them so I thought I'd do something with them whilst waiting for the glue to dry on another project. The composition is ayous - poplar - ash, 90g and 5.5mm thick. Feels like it will be...

The easiest way is to remove the handle of an old blade and then use that. Use a flush cut saw to do it and then copy it using a router. You can make a template without removing the handle but that's a bit harder.Alternatively see Ross Leidy's thread on another forum! I also know some people...

great work hipnotic! Very professional looking. Some interesting combinations, it will be good to know how they play.

Absolutely right, after a while there's no alternative but to buy a new bit. I have four trim bits and alternate them I used to find varnishing the outer ply with pu varnish before gluing helped reduce any bleed through and helped with cleaner edges when routing. When finished just sand the...

I find diamond sharpening stones the best for sharpening router cutters. Something like 400 and 1000 grit or they are often sold as coarse and fine. You can pick up a decent set for around 40 euros, you'll get sharp cutters and the stones will last a very long time. If you want them really sharp...

Some stunning pieces of wood, and a great looking blade. Glad to see you're back making blades!

Thanks Garry, I've e-mailed you. I've made a lot of blades with this composition, people seem to really like it. For anyone who's interested, Garry's blade is the second one on post 246. It's balsa - twarron carbon - ayous - mahogany.

Generally the higher the pitch the faster the blade, however, this is not always the case. The factors that contribute to the pitch include the stiffness, how thick the blade is and the head size. I am also sure glue type and varnish affect the pitch too but can't back that up with hard evidence...

Thanks for the kind words Spinking, I'll add some ratings on those blades. Here's a picture of your blade, I meant to post this a while ago but I've been busy at work, apologies. This is one of my favourite compositions, ayous core, douglas fir, limba, 5.7mm thick and made with hide glue.. Off-...

Thanks Nate, much appreciated. My plan is to start making classical guitars, which is probably my biggest passion, it's going to be a huge challenge but I'm excited. What's nice is that many of the woods are very similar, I'm planning two guitars at the moment, a western red cedar and walnut and...

These will be the last blades I'll be making for the foreseeable future. I'm now starting to turn my attention to making musical instruments which is something I've wanted to do for nearly 10 years. I have 20 or 30 very playable blades of almost every variety. Balsa, ayous, kiri cores and a...

A quick update on this blade and how it compares to the elm version: Overall, it's pretty much as you would expect. It's a touch faster, slightly harder feel and with a lower throw. It's great to play with and you really notice the extra kick from the harder rosewood veneer when trying to finish...