I wanted a tasteful back-strip set into the back, to set off this lovely Blackwood back. Above is a picture of the back with the strip routed to depth, exactly down the centre of the back of the blackwood.

The back would be Routed and the selected strip glued into place. The back with its “New” strip would be sanded to the same thickness.

I decided that I wanted a Marquetry Back-strip and for me, the choice was between LMI’s”Chevron” (B16B) and one of LMI’s Herringbone Marquetry Purflings ,their “Fine” (PF13), click on the  link in the line above and you will be taken to the LMI page in their Catalogue and then scroll down to the Marquetry back-strips and you will see an example of both. I chose the “Chevron” (B16B), a picture of it appears in the  Catalogue. I have used this Chevron before and have to admit that of all the back-strips, when building an OM or Dreadnaught style of instrument, in my opinion, this is the most attractive and suits this style of instrument very well. 

A yellow Crayon line was then drawn down the exact centre of the back and the back was routed to take the back-strip. The strip was measured with a vernier caliper to determine its width and the route was then made slightly wider than the strip to allow for expansion of the strip after the application of glue and pressure to hold the strip in place during drying. After the back-strip was completely dry, the whole back was sanded to thickness ready for cutting to shape to take the back bracing.

Strip in situ with the back sanded ready for cutting to shape

Yellow Crayon line drawn down the centre of the back strip.

caliper being used to measure the strip