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Your problem is that the figure, which is end grain, absorbs more stain, and its darkness is enhanced by the finish (which is also absorbed more by end grain). I'd suggest taking an offcut and applying one or two wiped on coats of shellac. Then apply your stain, then the finish. This should...

Ebay is probably your best bet. Here's a harpsichord maker who sells 9m lengths. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386708804150 If you need a 20m length you might need to ask him for his supplier contact, or whether he can get longer lengths for you. I suspect we all want to know what it's for -...

Ukuleles and guitars here, no turning involved so I'm unlikely to be much help. We have a few instrument makers, though I don't think anyone has yet confessed to clarinets or flutes. I recall Katherine Tickell playing the Northumbrian pipes, and that those had bellows rather than a bag. If...

The website says synthetic, so it's not shellac! No idea about gilding I'm afraid.

Agreed. This is shellac dissolved in meths - you can decide if it's too blue.

Liquid hide glue is brown, so I'd say no to that. For cooking gelatine, just melt it with a little water in a cup floating in a bowl of recently boiled water, dilute to runny honey consistency once melted and use straight away. If you try this you'll want several test attempts because it gels...

Hot hide glue is your best bet, and you'll want the refined stuff for luthiers. I recently glued maple using the cheaper hide glue and got visible glue lines. If glueing small pieces, household gelatin works as highly refined hide glue. But it gels in seconds so you need the wood hand hot to...

You might try black fibre guitar binding/purfling. Under finish it should look just like ebony, and no difficulty bending it to your circle. Widths include 1.5 mm (eg https://luthierssupplies.co.uk/product/bfp03-black-fibre/) so you could double up to get your 3mm width.

You could also consider epoxy, as someone else suggested (Araldite I think). There are various grade of epoxy - JBWeld is for joining metal objects and makes a very strong bond (but is grey in colour - that might fit the look). Epoxy makes a mechanical bond, so you'd want to rough up the...

Factories like Martin only use hot hide glue for high end models, it's not well suited to a production line. Small builders use it much more, but some are happy with Titebond. Everyone uses more than one glue type, for different joints, depending on what suits their working method best. I've...

I might have known and forgotten that, as with so much! I should have written 'standard PVA' I guess. Thinking more, I should add that the preference for Titebond Original is also because it cures harder than standard PVA. Joints like neck, bridge, fretboard have to be rigid to avoid...

Musical instrument makers use mainly Titebond Original or hot hide glue (though epoxy and CA also have a place for some joints and some repairs). Titebond Original seems better in stressed joints than PVA and is repairable with some effort. Hot hide glue has a learning curve, but is the one...

You're welcome. There are shrinkage tables for common species online, worth checking out for design. For example, an oak back on a guitar might move 4% of its width, mahogany half as much. I dome backs to allow for this, and oak would get a higher dome.

For most practical purposes you can ignore shrinkage along the grain, it's so small. Cross grain is the issue, different species move different amounts. So your box gets taller or shorter, but if the sides are the same species they move together. No stress on the joints. Tops and bottoms of...

From memory timpani wheels are more like casters, so might jam at the joins. But some hardboard or 3/8 hardwood ply on top would give you a smooth surface to run on. The scaffold board idea seems easiest to do and cheapest, so I'd go for that.

Splicing different species is not a problem, but sanding will sand away the softer wood first so you might have trouble making the joint invisible, even under paint. I think I'd go for yellow pine, but I'd check first that it's as rot-resistant when painted as your current windows. I don't know...

For my book just out (AI Fairness and Beyond, but it's priced for practising lawyers and libraries so I doubt it will be on anyone here's Christmas list) I tried to work out how close the quality of driving is, using data from California which has seen the most extensive use of self driving cars...

Until I got a proper luthiers bending iron, my kit was a foot long piece of the tube from a caravan jockey wheel with a heat gun stuck in one end. You hold the wood on the pipe, rocking it to heat an inch or so, and gently pressing the wood to the pipe. You'll feel when it becomes plastic...

I've made ukuleles from oak, so I can comment on the inlay. Oak bends quite easily over a hot pipe at 1.8 mm. However, 2.5 mm could be hard work - I think it will bend, but it might start to separate on the outside of bends and will certainly wrinkle on the inside. The sharpest bend is too...

That's not how negligence liability works. If the client is in reality relying on your design then you have an obligation to take reasonable care and skill in both design and build. And signing an agreement won't help, you can't exclude liability for death or injury, full stop. Check with your...