Source for Spanish herringbone?

[Bill Hicklin]

Is there a supplier of the very fine, very sharp-angled herringbone purfling used by Torres and many of successors? (Yes, I've tried to make it. Yes, it was a failure).

[Arnt Rian]

Have Gurian make it for you?

[Bill Hicklin]

I only need about two feet of it!

[Alan Carruth]

The easiest way to make that sort of thing is to build it in place, if you only want to do in on one instrument. It's roughly like putting in a shell purfling edge, where you use a 'keeper' of soft plastic or waxed veneer strips to keep open a channel while you glue on the binding. Then you remove that and put in the herringbone/flechette/feather/wheat pieces one at a time. This takes some time, but it's not hard, and it does not call for outrageous precision. Look up Eugene Clark's articles on the Spanish rosette for information on how to do it. THe nice thing about this is that it gives you complete freedom to make trim the way you want.

Alan Carruth / Luthier