It ended up being easier to work with that I though. Broke one piece trying to bend it around a simple bending form - using heat gun and warm water.
Ultimately I bent into into place on the guitar - starting at the tail block, gently warming the purfling and taping in place as i worked it up toward the neck. The routed pufling channel gave it better support and kept it from twisting.
I picked it up at Grizzly, as I was unable to find fine rope with black as the external laminate from traditional luthier supplies.
https://www.grizzly.com/products/Purfli ... -Rope/T1126
Dave Bagwill wrote:I like that rope purfling as well - is it easy to work with? Where did you get it?