Building the Rosette Start to Finish

The whole process of building a rosette for a tenor ukulele. The soundboard is Hawaiian koa, the rosette is ebony and New Zealand Paua abalone.

[@red58impala]

Thanks for sharing your process. How thick are the pieces of the rosette, prior to sanding them flush? How deep do you cut your recess?

[@customukuleles]

@@red58impala This koa soundboard is 1.8mm thick, the channel for the rosette is 0.9 mm deep (1/2 the thickness). The rosette ebony pieces and the abalone start out 1 mm thick.

[@mbaxter571]

Thanks for sharing. You laid a ring of ebony into your template but when laying it into the soundboard you added the abalone pieces in between. How does this fit within the same diameter?

[@customukuleles]

Thanks for your question . . . You will notice about 4:27 into the video that I take each small ebony piece and mark off the thickness of the abalone (2mm) and then trim it and the disk sander. Sorry that the video doesn’t show that better.

[@mbaxter571]

@@customukuleles ahh makes sense now. Really enjoyed watching your video and hope to try my first rosette with your great example. Thank you.