A tough neck to carve

I found a neck blank I made some time ago and I'll use it for the soprano. It's a bookmatched mahogany neck with some really good looking grain in the headstock.

But it was really hard to carve. I usually go directly from knives to 180 grit sandpaper, but this wood wanted to splinter and tear so I had to make the final shaping starting with 40 grit. That's as coarse as asphalt.

But, as so often the case is with ukuleles, it turned out nice again.