A new violin project #5

[Kevin in California]

Started to carve the redwood top

[John Parchem]

Top must feel like butter after carving the back.

[Kevin in California]

Yes it so much easier but
The redwood is a bit "chippy" so more attention to grain orientation is needed versus spruce. I also can't seen to get my gouges sharp enough

[Kevin in California]

So this project was set aside about 3 months ago to begin a classical guitar for my 10 year old granddaughter
The guitar is now in the finishing stage, wiring on Tru Oil on this one. So as I'm doing that I've been able to work some on this violin.
I have the top mostly carved out on the inside so be fore I do the final thicknessing/smoothing I cut in the F holes. I started that today as the pick shows, I have drilled starting holes, then I cut from the center hole out toward the top and bottom with a small fine toothed saw. From there I start removing wood to my traced lines by cutting with an Exacto knife.
Tedious but fun. Still working on the right side.

[Kevin in California]

More progress.
I finished the F holes. Then I removed the corpus (side structure( from the mold, bent and installed the linings and trimmed the inside blocks to shape. Then I finished carving the inside oc the back and top to match the profile of the ledge around the corpus.

Then I made the bass bar (the only inside brace) and tediously fit it and glued it in.

This morning I carved the brace to shape and k ow I have the back and top glued to the corpus using Fish glue. This is similar to hide glue but it is already liquid.

Pics of the "box" to follow.

[John Parchem]

wow, your work looks great! On to the neck?

[Kevin in California]

Wow
It's been many months since I finished up the body of this violin and just this weekend pulled the project out and started on the neck. I'm slowly working on the scroll. This will be my 5th scroll but I still don't get/remember the process and concept to achieve the desired results so it's a slow process for me. The results will be okay although not as great as I'd like.

Any thought I'd share again as I continue on.