Update on zero sanding ukes

Well you all must think I gave up, being silent for this long. But fear not, this morning I measured the heights of the saddles-to-be and I'll shape them as soon as I can. Then it's glueing time and then we move on to the finishing. One of these will go to Mary Agnes Krell and GNUF. Maybe it'll be in a raffle, maybe it will be auctioned. 

I'd love to go to GNUF. 

A new bridge blank

My meter of piccolo bridge blank was spent so I needed a new one. Not a meter maybe, but something enough for a few ukes. I shape each bridge a lot after cutting the blank to length, so it could be square in section. But I like having the [extremely] rough section ready, and it saves me the effort of deciding where the grain direction goes each time. 

But in keeping with the seemingly low tech approach of the two current builds I decided not to use my mini table saw. So I reached for, ahem, a few hand tools. 

A jack plane, a smoothing plane, my giant rip saw, a rabbet plane, a small plow plane and a bullnose shoulder plane. 

It only took a little longer than it would have with setting up the table saw and use that, and the resulting surfaces are better. I'll rip this double sided bridge blank down the middle and it'll be enough for six piccolos. 

Nut area

I have slotted both necks, and now I pare away the wood behind the last slot which is the nut location. I always use my short E A Berg chisel for this.

I'll let the pics tell the story.