I have recently been working on this 1911 Gibson archtop.

 After consulting with Ian Davlin, Doug Proper and a few others on the Loothalong, I looked into a celluloid solution. The materials were more expensive than the budget would support, so I went to the Stewmac site and found an acrylic tortoise shell material that is  designed for raised pickguards.

 I read on the Stewmac site that the acrylic material is handmade with the swirl of the design actually part of the material, not painted on. The thickness was very similar to the original so I ordered it. 

It is a shiny gloss finish, which was not going to be a match for me, but I decided to proceed anyway. The acrylic was very easy to cut using my bandsaw. I made a paper template by tracing the original.

After cutting the material I used a combination of scrapers and nut files to do the final shaping (pictured). I rounded the edges using the mini scraper that has a notch in it which works well for this purpose.

I used epoxy to attach the long thin piece to the underside, which will house the nails that secure it to the side of the fretboard. I made sure to scuff up the material surface before applying the epoxy (thanks, Luke Heaton for that tip).

To achieve the same sheen I at first started with high grit micro mesh pads and worked my way to the lowest grit of 1500. That got me close, but to get the right look I then moved to scotch brite pads before ultimately realizing that 0000 steel wool was the right solution. That worked great, with some edge work from the 1500 grit micro mesh pad.

That’s it. The acrylic is similar to other hard surfaces I’ve worked with, so filing and scraping it felt comfortable and familiar. I had never made a pickguard like this one before, and I’m really happy with my results! I am sure you will be too!