wood bindings

[Justin Tugaoen]

A few years ago, I cut up a bunch of wood to use for acoustic guitar bindings. Most of them I prelaminated a contrast veneer before cutting into strips. Unfortunately I didn't do this with all of them, so now I have a bunch of koa and ebony strips that are plain, but when I bind the guitar(s) I'd like there to be a contrasting white/dark line bordering the binding (looking at it from the sides). What would be my best option to still do this using my precut bindings?
Options: glue very thin veneer strips to the bottoms of the bindings and sand flush (doesn't look easy), add the contrasting thin veneers simultaneous with the binding when gluing to the guitar ledges, or start over with making fresh bindings with veneers?I suppose I could also use these binding plain (and it looks like the luthier suppliers sell a lot of their wood bindings without laminations). Thanks for your thoughts

[Mario Proulx]

I never pre-laminate the side purflings.

Just glue-up the side purflings along with the bindings and top purflings to the guitar at the same time. It's a bit of a juggling act, but no at all complicated.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Second that.
I used to glue up logs of binding and side purfling. It works great, but really is not necessary, and it takes quite a bit of time.

[Kary Karahadian]

Mario and Chuck,
Is your side purfling the same thickness as your binding, or do you cut a separate rebate for it? I've always bent binding with side purfling already on, but wouldn't mind skipping that step.

[Barry Daniels]

I'll be presumptuous and answer for them. No ledge is cut. The depth of the side purfling is the same as the "width" of the binding and extends fully to the back of the binding's rabbet. No need to overcomplicate this.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Yea ... what Barry said.

how presumptuous!!

Seriously though, you really just need to get familiar with your purfling material.
I know it is counter-intuitive to bend these thin strips on their "tall" edge, but if you play with some you will get the feel for how it reacts.
All the man-made materials ("fiber" and plastic) are very compliant and can be easily man-handled into position except in the most extreme bends.

Wood is more difficult.
Maple and walnut shouldn't be much trouble as long as they aren't too tall.
Brittle woods, like cocobolo and ebony, will just break unless they are glued up in a log. I'm sure it could be done, but it takes more patience than I have.

[Chuck Tweedy]

For example, this is maple and black fiber that I just jammed in there. No problems at all.

That's ebony binding by the way. Black plastic would have looked almost the same.