Making Binding From a Reclaimed Doorstep Using Hand Tools

Making a guitar and I need some binding. I could either buy some or make it with my limited hand tools from whatever I've got lying around. When put like that, why wouldn't I?

The guitar I was making was made from reclaimed Wood from the building work on my house so looking at my Wood store I found what I think is iroko from our old front door step.

It’s quite pretty and the right colour for the binding I want. I’m only going to be using hand tools to do this. It does add time and effort but it is quite satisfying and I don't have a choice because I haven't got room for machines. I work in half of a 12x8ft shed that is also my Wood store and has bikes and other shed things in there.

If you want to speed things up, you could use a band saw and possibly a thickness planer (I don't know, I've never had one).

The tools I will use are:
Workbench with vice.
Rip sharpened hand saw
No 5 or 5 1/2 plane
Scrapers
Sanding block
Sand paper

You also need whatever Wood you are going to use for your binding.

First thing is to plane the faces of the wood you can see smooth. There will be enough planing and tidying of the face you are cutting and it is easier to hold the bigger piece of wood.

The next step is deciding how thick a binding you are aiming for. I wanted 2mm binding. Rip sawing by hand is not easy to do accurately so I will mark for the cut to be at 3mm and plane the rest as appropriate.

I just use a normal marking gauge to mark the wood setting the point of the scribe at 3mm. Mark the wood on all sides. Marking both sides is important as it helps guide the saw. Without making both sides it is likely the cut will be crooked.

To start the cut, clamp the wood quite upright but still at enough of an angle to start the cut at a corner. Start cutting and once the cut had made it two third of the way across the top, turn the wood around and start the cut from the opposite corner until it meets across the top.

The intent here is to work down the wood from each side using the grooves from each side to guide the saw. To help keep the cut accurate, as I get farther down the cut, I move the wood closer to the horizontal so it is easier to follow the mark on the wood. I regularly change the side I'm cutting from as it helps keep the cut accurate.

One other thing that helps as the cut progresses is to clamp the pieces t together above the saw. The picture shows the first clamp I put on. Before I finished the cut I had three clamps on the cut.

There will come a point where you need to turn the wood around and start the cut from the other end. Once you have finished the side of the wood you have cut will be quite rough but should be close to the width you want. Time to make it prettier.

So having managed to slice off a piece of the wood that is suitably thin, you will be faced with a surface that does not look fit for purpose and a problem as to how you hold this piece down while you work on it.

I will now introduce you to what will seem like magic. It is, the masking tape and super glue trick. When you first see it, you will not believe it will hold anything down but I assure you it works. To do it proper justice, I refer you to the link below where one of its main proponents introduces it properly.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6PsY4cgwg

For those of you who can't be bothered to follow the link, you put a strip of making tape on the bench, a matching piece on the workpiece, put superglue on one of them and bring them together. The workpiece will be held firmly enough for planing but will come away when you pull out straight up from the bench.

Why not just use double sided tape? This is cheaper and doesn't leave a residue all over everything.

So having fixed it down, have at the rough face with plane, scraper and sandpaper until you have it to thickness and appropriate finish.

You now have solid wood binding to cut to whatever width you need and probably cheaper than you could buy it premade.