It Worked for Me: Simple Binding Rabbet Sander

by Doug Berch

Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017

Occasionally I’m left with an area in a binding rebate that is a little lumpy or ragged after routing and/or hand cutting. I can usually clean these areas up with a chisel, small scraper or file, but sometimes it is difficult to smoothly fair a curve along a top or back.

Today I got the idea to take a small scrap of square kerfed lining and glue a piece of sandpaper to it (Photo 1). It is, in effect, a flexible file that conforms to the curve and smooths out any irregularities (Photo 2). The sides of this gizmo provide “safe edges” like on a file, and it is easy to keep the rebate square to the soundboard. This simple tool saved me about an hour of work today. ◆