A scary bit of work today, with lots of potential to render everything I have done so far as scrap!
First I marked up my head shape onto the neck. I've chosen something nice and simple on the basis that something simple but well done will look better than something complex that I struggle to achieve.
I also transferred the design onto the back of the head as this will be easier to work to on the bandsaw.
I also marked out the curve of the heel and the width of the neck. Today was definitely a "measure twice, cut once" day!
Then, onto the bandsaw, making sure that I've left plenty of tolerance to do the final shaping of everything later on ......
This was the first point where I thought the project was really going to work. It suddenly took on some beauty and form and, when I bolted it back on to the body (couldn't resist!), it really started to look like a distinctly different instrument with the slender neck and headstock.
I spent a couple of hours at this point finely shaping and finessing the neck/body joint. The lesson was to go slowly and check fit often. I used a sanding stick to gently alter the shape of the "cheeks" of the tenon, to bring the centre line of the neck into line with the centre of the bridge and also the horizontal angle to make sure that there would be enough, but not too much, string clearance.
I glued on 2 contrasting layers of maple and rosewood veneer to add detail and bring the depth of the heel up to match the body depth.
No comments:
Post a Comment