Originally Posted by
HoGo
I see you got some blisters :-)
This carving stage is one of the most enjoyable in building, IMO.
I would suggest few tips though. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got (and typically realized they are really good only later) is to always use the most aggressive (or biggest) tool for the job at given point. That means carving with gouges as close as possible to final shape and only skip to next level (finger planes) to smooth out traces of previous tool, not to remove vast amounts of material.
This requires good control of the tool, but reward is much better efficiency both in time spent AND reduced amount of blisters :-)
For carving top or back the gouge cuts are typically done across the plate (perpendicular to center joint) from edges towards joint. If you plane the blank to final height before carving and mark 2" oval at center and flat platforms at edges (or just mark on outside edges) it's just matter of smoothly carving away wood from one line to the other (as close as you dare). especially on flamed maple you cannot cut along grain without bad tear-out.
You can skip to larger convex planes (I would recommend asian style with two handles - have a look at some vids from chinese instrument factories thay are really efficient with these after initial rough gouging) or just start taking thinner and thinner shavings with gouge and skip to small fingerplanes when the arch is nearly done.
I strongly recomment watching videos of Davide Sora, one of the best violinmakers these days - he's got covered all stages of violin making with traditional hand tools to hihgest level, really must see for anyone aspiring to building violin or similar carved instrument. His use of gouges is unreal.
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