decorative woodburning

Jack

Hi all,

Stumbled across this when we got an add request on myspace. Maybe some of our friends from Italy have seen his guitars with decorative woodburning? I can't help but wonder if it affects the strength of the tops. They're definitely one of a kind, though!


http://www.myspace.com/fabiomunari

best,
Jack.

Ken Bloom

Hi Jack,

I've done decorative woodburning on instruments though not on guitars. From the picture, this is beautifully done. The light scorching that takes place here would not affect the strength of the top. It would have to be pretty deep for that and then the detail would be gone. This was done with a steady hand and a very fine tool.

Bob Holo

Beautiful... thanks for pointing it out. I love decoration that doesn't add mass. I've never understood heavy abalone inlays on acoustic guitars - it's like: "Hey, listen to this beautiful vibrating soundboard.... now let's glue a bunch of small rocks to it..." This seems a lot less invasive to the instrument - this particular design seems a bit over the top - but conceptually - I love the idea of decoration by dye / paint / light woodburning.

Ken Bloom

Hi Bob,

There is a long tradition of doing this sort of thing on a lot of European instruments and I've done a fair bit of it. Some gets way over the top, like Hardanger fiddles, but when done lightly and with restraint, it's a wonderful touch to add. It's not hard to do. With the burning technique, I do it after I've done all the grain raising I'm going to do. I sand down to 220 and then do the burning. I then go back over it with 320 to remove any burnt fuzz that comes up. Forget using the average woodburner. They are too hot. If you're serious about this, get one of the controlable units that the bird carvers use. You can do a beautiful fine line and really control the amount of burning.