Day 4: Carving the head, gluing the heel block, planing and sanding the sound board
Today corresponds to Roy’s book pp.174-177; 199.
After drilling the holes for the machine heads, one side was a perfect fit…
… while the other side needed a little filing to allow it to turn freely.
I screwed the machine heads into place.
I removed the machine heads leaving the screw holes ready to receive the machine heads when finally installed.
I removed the tape to allow for the slots to be shaped. Drawing a line to mark both their depth and length.
Using a round rasp, I removed the wood carefully and evenly.
I counted the number of strokes of the rasp, moving between both of the slots, working them as a pair.
Sanding to finish.
I carefully cut out the template of the head in the masking tape on both sides with a scalpel.
Then, using a bandsaw, I removed a lot of the excess wood.
Then, using a sharpened 20mm chisel, I carefully removed the remainder.
I worked on both faces of the head, trying to make sure the head was symmetrical.
Having used a chisel up to the template marking, I then used a sanding block and various jeweller’s files to finish the work. Checking at all times with a small engineer’s square.
I then cleaned up both sides of the head and the slots with a rasp and sandpaper, removing any pencil lines.
Finally, I gave the head a coat of shellac to seal it.
Next, I prepared the neck for gluing to the heel block we prepared on day 1.
The heel glued and clamped, using blocks to stop it from sliding all over the place.
The last part of the day was spent planing and sanding the sound board. It was clamped down one side and planed in vertical strips across the board until smooth. It is a good piece of wood and didn’t tear.
I then sanded it, starting with 100, then 150 and finally 240 grit paper. In between grades of sandpaper, I rubbed a damp cloth over the board and let it dry, thereby raising the wood fibres for sanding.
The finished board.
A thin coat of shellac and alcohol mix to seal the board and, like the water rubdown, raise the wood fibres for later sanding.
