Two Mandolins - Come On Up to the House

Well the moon is broken
And the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house

It was only some binding that had cracked on This Old Mandolin.  The past week was full of work, band rehearsals and other aspects of married life with children.  With a few things on the to-do list complete, it was Saturday evening when I had the time to get back to the repairs on this Kay L4 mando.

A few days before starting in on these repairs, I left some small pieces of binding strip in a shallow mason jar to dissolve within a combination of 100% acetone and tint.

One piece at a time, I added slivers of tinted binding strip back to the repair site with some CA.

Using a popsicle stick, I applied some of the binding/acetone/tint juice to fill in and smooth out the bumps and valleys.

Progressing from a rotary tool sanding drum to 200 grit sand paper to steel wool, I smoothed out the binding surfaces.

Just before touching up the color, I used a toothbrush to apply a mild abrasive.

 

It was too cold to spray this repair area with clear lacquer on Saturday evening.  After setting up the paint booth, I brought This Old Mando up and into the house and enjoyed some Sarah Jarosz covers of some Tom Waits songs while writing this entry.  There's always tomorrow.