Rounding Off The Edges

I spent a couple of hours yesterday with a file, rounding off the square edges that the rasping created - reasonably easy going although obviously a fair bit of care required. I'm very happy with the results, in a little over two hours I managed to do all the bits round the front of the body:

The back of the body will have to wait for another day, and clearly it'll all need a bit of tidying up with various grades of sandpaper after that, but the main part of the job (on the front at least) is done. Still finding my way with all this woodworking stuff, but I'm really happy with how it's going so far!

Taking Shape (part 2)

So I've been a bit quiet on the blog for a while - sorry about that!

Life has got in the way a bit lately, but I have managed (in a couple of goes) to finish hacking off the bulk of the wood I needed to lose to achieve the shape I want. It's a slightly odd and unconventional shape, but I like that and I like how it's turned out.

It needs a bit of tidying up obviously as the rasp leaves it pretty rough, and I'll need to shape the edges to recreate the curve that the rest of the body has.

I've also not managed to remove much weight this way, as I kind of expected - it's down to just over 2.6kg (from the original ~2.8kg) but I'd like to lose a bit more. I could try to carve the shape of the body down a bit more, or maybe flatten off the sides all the way round (also removing the need to re-create the curved edges) but I don't think that would remove much weight so might be more hassle than it's worth. I'm now seriously considering creating a cavity or two in the body somewhere, although I haven't yet figured out where to do it without losing either the structural strength or balance of the body. I might also carve down the rib and arm cuts a bit, which won't gain much but might help with the general comfort of playing.

But whatever I do from now, I'm happy to have it looking, shape-wise at least, how I had intended!