Making Your Own Rope Binding
by Dave Means

I usually make only enough rope for a couple of ukes at a time, as I usually make it from scraps, and I seldom have more than one or two orders for rope bound ukes in the pipeline at any one time.

Before I get into the actual process, I should point out that traditional rope binding is cut on the bias in one plane only (the top view). However, rounding the edge over significantly after installation (using a radius nearly equal to the width of the binding) creates the true "laid rope" look and makes it appear as though it is cut on the bias in both the top and side views.

Depending on the scraps available, I usually start out making ten or so roughly 1" by 4" strips of each wood color. I start out with longer strips to make them easier to thickness to about 0.10", and then cut them down to 4" lengths. I stagger-stack them for gluing the alternating color strips, working on a sheet of waxed paper or vinyl and using a bevel gauge to keep the stairstep angle constant. An angle of about 40 degrees looks best to my eye. Although I use hot hide glue for the primary assembly of my instruments, I use Luther's Mercantile instrument-maker's white glue for this sort of work.

Once I've glued up this staggered "loaf" of about 20-30 layers (depending on whether it's two- or three-color rope), I let the glue cure (clamping is not really necessary and usually results in causing the layers to slip out of alignment), and then I true up the surfaces and sand off the "stairsteps" on a stationary belt sander.

I attach the loaf to a larger piece of scrap with double-sided tape to allow me to hold it safely as I "resaw" it by cutting it in half into two 2"-wide stacks on a power miter saw set to 40 degrees (or whatever angle you used). I then stack these and glue them to make a taller 2"-wide stack, again truing up the surfaces on the belt sander. I go through the resawing, stacking, and truing process one more time to give me stacks that are roughly 1" by 1" and about 8" tall.

I've made a small, simple jig for my bandsaw that is really just a combination resawing fence and zero-clearance insert to allow me to cleanly resaw the stack into strips about 0.125" thick. This jig is just two pieces of Baltic birch ply glued into an "L" shape when viewed from the end, so that one side of the "L" is the fence and the other the base, which is clamped to the saw table with the blade in a short kerf I've cut into one end at 0.125" from the fence.

Sawing these 1/8" slices off the stack, you can usually get about five or six, considering the wood lost to the kerfs. Then I rip each of these slices into strips 1/8" by 1/8", again getting about five or six out of each slice. So each "loaf" yields about 25 to 36 rope strips about 8" long.

My finished rope binding is about 0.10" square. There will be some roughness in the 0.125"-square strips from the bandsawing, of course, so I size and true them by running them carefully through some sort of manual feed thickness sander. I've used both a shop-made thickness sander with an 18" by 5"-diameter drum and one of those "Luthier's Friend" drill press sanding jigs with success. In a pinch, you could probably just chuck a sanding drum into a drill press, and clamp a fence to the table to make a crude but effective thickness sander. You'll inevitably break a few of these delicate strips in the resawing and sanding processes, but they can always be glued back together.

Rope binding is usually installed with a single dark purfling line between it and the top or back. The rope will bend only slightly before breaking if bent cold. It will bend a bit more if hot-bent freehand without wetting it. To make tighter bends, use a thin strip of flexible metal on the outside of the bends (pressed to the side away from the bending iron) while bending. With some practice, you can bend it tight enough for the waist of a uke without too much breakage.

Another trick is to glue purfling strips to both sides of the rope before bending, leaving the outer strip proud of the sides so it can be scraped or sanded off after the binding is installed.

I've always used quarter-sawn wood and glued the strips with the grain running lengthwise, so I'm not certain of the practicality of other grain orientations.

Hope this helps... it's labor-intensive, but fun!

Thanks to Dave Means of Glyph Ukulele for this rope binding tutorial! Please visit Dave's site at Glyph Ukulele.