I have not done this but here is what I have heard described:

The bridge is the piece of the guitar that holds the ends of the strings in the
middle of the top.  The strings have little balls tied at the end, and they go
through the holes and bear on the inside of the top, and pegs are inserted into
the tapered holes to hold them in place.  The bridge is subject to 175-200 lbs
of force, so the glue joint is critical, and this joint can be expected to fail
at some point.

The traditional technique is to heat the bridge with a hot iron or heat lamp to
weaken the glue (used to be Hot Hide, but is now Titebond or similar) and slip a
thin putty knife (icing knife) under it.  But now they are being removed cold.
The knife for this is thin, but not sharp, if I get the idea,  There is a tiny
flat with sharp arises and this tool is tapped into the joint to break the glue
bond.

The two icing knives that I have are .023 and .014 thick.  I have used them for
removing 2 backs and other various small jobs and don’t yet have a feel for what
is best.

Ed Minch




On May 22, 2015, at 6:36 PM, Don Schwartz  wrote:

> 
> 
> On 2015-05-22 2:53 PM, yorkshireman@y... wrote:
>> the blunt edge could be sharpened a bit, but you don’t want ‘sharp’ - you
want thin enough to slide into the joint, so as regards grinding, which I
mentioned, I’ve found that the almost semicircular end isn’t always the best
shape, so I’ve ground a couple to be more like a striking knife shape at the
end.
>> Being a table knife, they have a stiffish spine, which allows a bit of gentle
emerge if needed (though I snapped the end off one not long ago - whilst abusing
it on a home repair task)
> Richard
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> I have a few of those knives to experiment with (the LOML's rejects ;- ), and
a couple of rather better-educated guesses about how to proceed now. IME, the
thinner ones are much less common than those with a stiffer spine, so I'll hold
them in reserve for now.
> 
> Don