Fugly traveller blanks

With what I’ve learned from the four first travel ukes I’ve made, I set out to build a few more. Having access to a pillar drill in the large workshop makes drilling a few hundred holes bearable. The bit stops a couple of millimetres short of breaking through, counting the brad point. 

Then I clean the edges up with chisels. My set of nice chisels have taken quite a lot the last weeks and I’ll sharpen them all today before I crack on. In the pic you can clearly see the marks left by the brad point on the drill bit. 



Then my newly sharpened router plane took the lovliest shavings off of the bottom of the recess, removing the brad point marks. With how the blade is shaped I took extra care not to undercut the sides. 



When the recess is made I reconnect the two halves of the perspex jig, fit the protruding one in the hole and score the outline of the instrument around the large contour half of the jig. Or is it a template. 



Each recess takes me one hour, after drilling out the bulk. So I made two yesterday and have three more ahead of me today. Two walnut, two cherry and one ash that grew on this here plot of land. Ann is close by and that is a good thing.