Carving a scroll - step by step - part XVII

August 3, 2009 at 11:36 PM

I still will have to make some refinishing on my scroll but now I'll work on the neck. Here I worked with an aggressive rasp till the final thickness of the neck, 18.5 and 20, I'll remove the wood betwen these points:

You may have noticed that my workshop is a mess....

Here I wrapped a coarse sandpaper in a round chisel handle to work in this region:

Here I'm cutting the neck root with my Japanese saw:

Working in the neck with a rasp:

Now I will shape the neck and fingerboard. I'll divide the side of the fingerboard in 3 parts:

First I'll round the two external thirds, preserving the central one that will correspond to the widest part of the neck:

Here a straight edge over the side of the fingerboard showing the central third as the widest part of the fingerboard:

On the part of the fingerboard that is not glued to the neck just the upper third will be rounded:

Here a shaped scraper is used for finishing the inside hollowing of the fingerboard:

I use my thumb's nail to guide me shaping this area (here not finished yet):

www.manfio.com

From Shailee Kennedy
Posted on August 5, 2009 at 4:35 AM

I never even knew there was inside hollowing of the fingerboard. This blog of yours is absolutely fascinating---it's starting to be the first thing I check when I log on to my computer in the morning! Do you plan to describe how you make the entire viola, or just the scroll and neck?

From Tasha Miner
Posted on August 5, 2009 at 9:46 AM

Fascinating. What a wonderful insight!

Thank you for sharing this journey with us so well!

From Royce Faina
Posted on August 5, 2009 at 7:38 PM

You spoke of your shop, "...a mess." I thought the corect term was, "Organized Caos."? ;^)

1) Since Ebony is used for the fingerboard and is a very hard wood, how difficult is it to work with?

2) Rosewood is also used for fingerboards, which do you prefer? Why?

From LUIS CLAUDIO MANFIO
Posted on August 5, 2009 at 10:57 PM

Thanks!

Making this kind of tutorial takes time, I don't know if I'll have time in the near future to make a tutorial like this about making the whole instrument, but I'll think about that.

Royce, yes, ebony is quite hard, you need very sharp tools to work with it. Rosewood is not used on top instruments for fingerboards, at least according to today's standarts. Ebony is much more harder, durable and uniform than rosewood.

www.manfio.com

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Carving a scroll - step by step - part XVII

Laurie's Books

Subscribe