Neck, cleaning and sharpening

I haven’t forgotten you! I was just busy with the soul numbing daily grind of the day job, the one grown-ups tell you not to quit. May they rot in hell. 

I put Li’s soprano on the bandsaw and cut the sides down to height/depth. Then I got cracking rubbing it in the radius dish. It’s not an even spherical radius, I rock it lengthwise to exaggerate the curve in that direction. Because I want to*.

And here it is with the kerfed lining strips glued in. 



Then I turned to the neck, one of the blanks I made a while back. You know, that post with all the saws in it. I mark out a centerline, and from it I set off the tapering edges of the finished neck. I shoot for 36 mm at the nut and 42 at the 13th fret where the neck meets the body. Why at the 13th, I [don’t] hear you ask. Because I want to*.

I use my tiny sliding bevel for the heel profile. All’s quite rough this far, the important decisions are all made once the knives come out. 



Before I set the saw to to blank I had to set the teeth on the saw. My saw set from ebay makes that an easy task. 



Then it rips really well. This is the smaller of the two saws I restored last year and it keeps getting better. A tool in use is a tool that shines, as we say. 



Then I make entry and exit points for the spokeshave...



... and carve the neck. This takes all of five minutes even though I try to make it last. 



I needed to thin the back of the headstock down, but the plane wasn’t sharp enough. So I took the iron out and soaked a couple of stones. As I waited for them to stop bubbling I chose a few more blades to sharpen. This lot took me a full hour on 1200 and 2000 grit, followed by the leather strop. 



But what of the cleaning? No point in showing you the bench even though I cleaned it for a long time before even taking that first pic. You wouldn’t see the difference I’m afraid, but I do and it’s there. 

* I could make outlandish claims about improved tone or volume but I’ll leave the bullshit for others to spread. I don’t need to explain the science or magic behind the Argapa ukuleles, they’re just what I want them to be - bad ass and lovely. 

Binding

It was time to bind the top of Li’s soprano. I bind spruce topped instruments, but those of single hardwoods I don’t always. 

First I trimmed the top flush with my wide chisel. 

Then I scribed the edge with my self made gramil. I have experienced tear-out on spruce and this helps prevent that. 

I aimed for a single piece of mahogany but the grain direction made one end of it snap so I ended up with two halves. 

Here’s the first one in place. Glueing with Titebond is nice, you have a much better open time than with ca glue. 



And both halves glued and taped, left overnight to dry. 



I am pleased with the result. If I have small gaps I can often remedy them with some spot heating and re-taping, but this time I won’t need to faff about with that. 

Scattered mind, random progress

Last week, in the larger workshop, I picked out some walnut and tried the perspex template for laying out some future fugly travellers. 

And more recently, in my home workshop, I made a top for Li’s ukulele. It’ll be spruce with a mahogany rosette. I am very fond of my rosette cutter. 



After glueing in the mahogany strip I level it with chisels and scrapers. 



Then I cut it out with my Knew concepts saw. 



I needed braces so I split a square piece of spruce in three parts with a rip saw. 



And after some faffing around it’s all good.