Acoustic Guitar Construction

I always thought I would need spokeshaves for guitar building necks so I bought a few of the curved and flat ones years ago. I have no clue where they are since I rarely ever used them. I find that rasp and especially now those micro plane rasp do a much faster job then spokeshaves. ..Mike

I've been hearing much the same thing from other guys. I think I'll go with the microplanes and such, though I just built a router copy carver that should handle the heavy lifting.

Are you new here, Mike? Welcome. Tell us about yourself! Post a pic in the pic thread of 'shoot the breeze'!

Ken's recommended Nicholson 4-in-1 file/rasp is twenty bucks at Rockler and nine bucks 'elsewhere' (where else?). Three bucks for postage.

I know this is an old thread, but I use a draw knife to take the neck down to its basic shape. http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/Dr ... ducts/160/
I got the 5" with sheath. Worth every penny! It even works great for thinning most of the back of the headstock down to thickness and is absolutely fantastic when shaping the heel.
The only caution to using a draw knife is paying attention to the grain to avoid "splitting" the wood when the grain changes direction. I also suggest dulling the sharp corner edges of the blade with a file since it can cut you like a razor blade.
When the neck is mostly carved, I use a finger plane (mini plane), a concave scraper, and a rasp to give it the final shape before sanding.
(I never would have thought of using a draw knife until I took a coopering class last summer. I wouldn't do it any other way now.)
Joe

Joe - I've not had the opportunity to use a drawknife. Can a fella learn it on his own, or would a teacher be that much better?

Dave,
You can very easily learn on your own. The knife is made to pull toward you with both hands. It gives you a very high degree of control. I'm sure you've seen these. If you've ever watched a documentary or show about how the traditional woodworkers built stuff in the old days, you've probably seen a guy sitting on a shaving horse using one. When building wheel spokes, they use one to get the blank to basic shape before switching over to a spoke shave. I built myself a modified version of a shaving horse called a shaving pony. I used that to hog out most of the wood, then moved the neck to a vice. You can do it all in a vice if you wanted to, which I'll probably do next time. The shaving pony was a cool idea, and provides better support for the neck, but I like the vice better for moving around the neck more freely.
For carving the heel, I both pull and push. I pull to form the start of the heel curve where the heel meets the neck, and push down from the heel cap area toward the neck to cut through the tough end grain and form the inside curves. You can control the degree of carving a curve very easily with 2 hands.
Nothing special about this. You can use it anyway you are comfortable with. You can "learn" it in less than 1 minute on a piece of scrap. If you get one, the FIRST thing you need to do is dull the corner edges. Yep, experience talking. :o)
Joe

Every once in a while I try one of my spoke shaves, but I keep going back to my favorite rasps - two Microplanes and a Shinto double sided rasp.