So what's next?

With Rob’s and Paul’s mandolins safely collected, work on the next two commissions starts in earnest. These two, Philip’s Octave mandolin and Patrick’s twin-point mandolin, are both coincidently bound for Southern Ireland.

Below are the two rosettes; as you’ll see Philip is having a herringbone rosette and Patrick a pearl dot and diamond design.

Patrick has also opted for an “F” style head, this design has proved very popular since its introduction (twin-points only!) and here’s the finished head with a rather wild cocobolo head overlay.

On instruments with longer necks, I often prefer to use maple as it’s just a wee bit stiffer. I recently got hold of this very nice board of flamed maple and I always feel that it so important to get as much out of a board as possible- not just from a business point of view, but to show respect for the tree that was felled.

So, planning! Here you can see the two pieces that will be laminated to form the neck, the spliced head, fretboard wedge and a piece for matching bindings; that should leave enough for a couple of future mandolins!

By now, you should be aware of my passion for tools. This specialist Veritas bevel-up plane is absolutely wonderful for highly figured wood; compounded in this case by having the grain of each piece of piece running in opposite directions. The cut is so, so clean!

A few days later and the completed neck, this one with a beautiful jet black ebony head overlay, which will tie in nicely with the herringbone. 

 And here we are……

You might notice that there are three necks here; remember that carved top?