The first mandolins of my 2026 batch are finally ready for finishing! They were strung up and their owners played them “in the white,” after which I made final adjustments based on their feedback.
Then I took the necks off, routed channels on the corners and added binding. The router can’t reach the tight curves of the scroll and neck area, so I spent several days tediously cutting and fitting the binding in that area. I added maple blocks under the fingerboard extension then glued the necks back in their final position.
I used to say that the finishing process took as long as all the steps preceding it. I’ve gotten faster, but it’s still a LOT of work! Every little gap and imperfection needs to be filled, and the surface needs to be sanded to perfection since the stain will highlight the slightest scratch. The first stain goes on by hand, then the final, darker tones get sprayed with an airbrush.
Both these instruments got a sunburst, but the owner of the birdseye maple mandolin, on the bottom, wanted a lighter burst in order to avoid obscuring the beautiful figure in the wood.
After all that work getting the stain on, I spent several days painstakingly scraping it off the binding! Once I’m satisfied, the first seal coat of shellac goes on, and they start to look like the real thing.
It took weeks of preparation, but I’m finally ready to put on the first varnish. That part will go quickly, but then I’ll have to wait 3-4 weeks for the finish to cure hard enough to buff it to a gloss and string them up again.