[Neil K Walk]

No, I didn't use water. I used Windex with ammonia based on suggestions from John Hall of Blues Creek Guitars. The pink stain was from dye in the butcher paper.

Also per Mr. Hall, I lower the waist to just low enough to how the side in place. Then I wait for the heat to get up to 240-250F before bending, doing the lower bout first then moving immediately to the upper bout, which has a stiffer set of springs so I am much more careful in "walking" the caul down before finally doing the waist.

FWIW these are the 4th and 5th bends I've done with this equipment. The first two (sapele and African mahogany) resulted in the waists and upper bouts buckling - but that was more because they were too thick. The next three (a piece of zebrawood and these two slats of black walnut) I thinned down to around .085" thick and just spritzed them with Windex.

PS: for my first two builds I worked with another amateur luthier and made more mistakes. Build #1 was mahogany and we bent three left sides, one of which split along the grain. Build #2 was east Indian rosewood and it bent just as easily as these last 3 did. Any nervousness I've had going into this process has all but disappeared.

Next up, trimming the excess off these slats and gluing in the neck and tail blocks. These sides are already profiled to be slightly deep for an OM/000 but I may keep the body on the deep side.