The Birth of a Bone and Wood Guitar Slide Pt. 1

A lot of these folks in the @woodworking community knows I spend most of my time building cigar box guitars and other accessories for them. One item I like to make is the guitar slide. I make them from. Bone and various exotic hardwoods or acrylic. In this post I will try to take you with me as I build one from scratch to finish. The one I will be making today is cow bone (femur) and a purple heart/ curly maple laminate. I start by glueing the woods together then I split the bone in half and level/ flatten the edges. When the wood is set I level one side and bond the two together.so let's get started..... Here is a teaser, this is what we are shooting for. This one is made from bone and bloodwood. Each one has its own distinct sound depending on the density of the wood, thickness of the walls, etc.

We will start off after squaring up the ends as much as possible by drilling out the center hole. This is where I start it all. I drill the hole first in accordance to the joint between the wood and bone and also mother nature never makes two pieces identical so neither is each slide. One piece of bone might be perfectly symmetrical and the next look like a funnel.you work around Ma Natures artwork.

Make sure the piece is clamped...... No fingers were broke during this demo.....lol....

From here I would take it to the band saw and trim it as close as possible to a working chunk of wood and bone.......

After you have checked and all your fingers are still there you can move over to the belt sander. I use as coarse a belt as I can get to rough shape these. Around 36 or 40 grit. It depends on the wood but usually this doesn't take too long. Please wear a mask!!!! Most exotics and the bone have dust that can be toxic. So here is a shortspin on the belt sander....

So for now that's it.... Its hovering at zero degrees and the heater is broke so ill leave you with a couple pics of finished product and an invite to the next installment soon.... Thanks for watching.....

Ok well the e steem app will not let me upload any more pics so please go to www.stogeebluesbox.com or www.facebook.com/angelsong13/ and check out finished slides there......see Ya next time!!!!!!

Oh ya sorry for the sideways pics... I didn't do that I think e steem is going through some maintenance