Earlier today I cut out the two F-holes on the front piece. They are obviously not traditional f-holes, I want to make all my guitars with my own signature cutout so it seems appropriate to do the same on the Mandolin.
I marked out the two cutouts using a cardboard template ensuring they both measured the same distance from the edges of the body and then drilled a couple of holes with my drill to allow me to drop my jigsaw blade in to start the cuts.
Now I guess I could have just sanded down the edges once they were cut but I decided to bind them instead. Not only to give a nice professional look to the cutouts but also as good practice. I had a bit of black binding in the garage and set about securing each piece with superglue.
Each side needed 3 pieces of binding and the angles were gentle enough that I did not need any heat to melt them into shape. Its a fiddly process but well worth the effort and the results speak for themselves.
I left the binding slightly proud of the surface of the top leaving enough to scrape back and sand level once the glue has completely set and hardened.
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