I took an hour today and aimed at shaping the neck for the piccolo. Thise of you who's been here a while know that I enjoy neck carving immensely, and today was no exception. The cherry was unusally beautiful too, with rays and a nice chattoyance.
First I shape the heel and the area around the nut end, so I get entry and exit points for my small contour plane / spokeshave.
Then I do most of the shaping, trying to avoid flats or divots. A sharp tool will do what you expect of it but I had to go in different directions to handle the grain.
The profile was cut with my large rip saw so the last bit outside the lines was planed off with a tiny violin plane. Look at that shaving!
At the heel I make a relief cut which helps as I mate the neck with the body. I sand the heel on a thick metal plate with sandpaper on it to get the joint perfect, and also the angles.
Here's the metal plate in the background.
With a one piece top and a one piece rim we're at a loss of centre lines, so I put low tack tape at both bouts and find the middle with a centre finding rule.
Then it's check - sand - check centre line- sand - check angles - check centre line - sand - check joint - and then at last GLUE, DRILL, SCREW. Finish [now cold] cup of coffee.
Here it is. Next up are back braces and then the back itself.
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