Post #300!

Welcome to my 300^th blog post; and with about a quarter million page views, my sincere thanks for your continued interest in my work.

So, here’s some more about the carving of Jonathan’s mandocello soundboard. Carving a soundboard is an iterative process; you’re continually shaping with planes, checking against templates and sanding smooth. The removal of wood in one area allows access to another area of the soundboard and once that wood has been removed from the new area, you’re back to the original spot, slightly modifying it, in the light of what you have just done. That said, here are some photos of the soundboard being shaped…………

A profile gauge helps to ensure symmetry.......

As I got close to the final profile, the soundboard was aligned with the rim using dowels, most of the excess is trimmed away. I then used the Wagner again to ensure that the outer 10mm of the soundboard is a consistent thickness and then a bit more shaping!

Next step is the internal shaping!

Here’s a fun photo of the ‘cello along with Alex’s cocobolo twin-point.

And for the sake of completion; the polishing of Mark’s Standard Plus is now complete and we’re just waiting for it to harden.