New Viola – Part 3 (rough thicknessing, f-holes)

I’ve cleaned up the arching here to more-or-less its final shape. The edges are left rough still until the body is glued up.

I use my drill press to give me guide depths so I know when to stop carving. These are all leaving 5mm of material, which gives me plenty of margin for error.

Next step is to rough out the inside to those depth holes.

Once the inside is cleared out to around 5mm, I can start on the f-holes. I used a hole-saw specially made for this purpose this time around (thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday gift!)

I use a coping saw to get the general shape of the holes, and refine the shape with a very sharp knife.

This is after a bit more clean-up. They’re starting to get close!

View from the inside at this stage.

Here comes the fun (but tedious) part. I use a thumb plane to gradually decrease the thickness of the top to get it just where I want it. The caliper is an invaluable tool at this step, though I also gently flex the plate to get a feel for what’s going on mechanically at each step.