Some more new tools arrived 😃. A spokeshave, to help carve the round shape on the back of the neck, and a new, decent quality tenon saw because a bad workman always blames his tools and I definitely messed up cutting the tenon in an earlier blog entry because of my old saw - nothing to do with me, honestly!
I was dreading shaping the back of the neck, but actually really enjoyed this part.
Basically, you carve progressively smaller facets; so I marked up down the back and sides of the neck for the first facet and then took that off using a combination of spokeshave, chisel and rasp. Once again, it's really important to keep the centreline reference, so it all stay symetrical.
Once that was done, you take further facets off until it approaches a round shape and then I used sand paper to get it properly smoothed. The best thing I found was a piece cut off a spare belt sander belt and then used it almost like you do when drying your back with a towel, so it kept a consistent shape on both sides.
The heel shape just sort of came naturally by creating a smooth transition from neck to body.
Once the shape was there, I used progressively finer sandpaper to get it smooth. I’ll save the finest one for just before I start finishing it.
I couldn’t resist taking some photos comparing the old and new necks, and they illustrate quite well the thinner bouzouki neck.
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