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I decided to carve my own neck, because getting a pre made neck to fit is too much work and pre made necks are expensive. I carved the heel end, will carve the headstock end next time, then connect the two with block planes. Heel cap is a little asymmetrical but I will fix that when I sand it with the drum sander.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

carving the neck is probably one of the parts of my first build i look forward to the most

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It is better to try and fail, than never try at all

Tai Fu,

Check this thread by Robbie O'brian presenting another Luthier Tips du Jour instructional video on Youtube. The topic is Neck Carving and is informative.

Best of Luck

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Tai Fu,

Check this thread by Robbie O'brian presenting another Luthier Tips du Jour instructional video on Youtube. The topic is Neck Carving and is informative.

Best of Luck

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Ok I shaped out the headstock end, including the diamond volutte as found on many Martin guitars. I did this part entirely with a hammer and a chisel so I am off by a bit probably. Those guys with CNC machines they really had it made. Then I used the round cheese grater thing to determine the profile at the headstock end, then connect it with a plane. Thing is I don't have a spokeshave and I used a block plane but the plane body keep hitting something, preventing me from removing stock relatively fast and forcing me to use other means like planing cross grain to remove stock from the ends. Will probably go back to rasp once I got everything close.

By the way I looked at robbie's DVD and he carved the neck while it's attached to the body. I am not sure what is the advantage to this because I always carve the neck without the body attached to prevent damage to the body. Plus with the body attached it's just that much harder to maneuver the pieces in tight spaces.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

To me carving the neck is a love/hate thing. I love the gratification I get once completed but getting there is alot of blood, sweat and tears. I'm now able to perfectly duplicate the volutes as seen on the 30's Martins but it is a slow, tedious process. I would imagine after fitting the fingerboard to the rough, bandsawed neck, I spend at least 8 hours carving and then add a couple of hours to final sand prior to finishing.

On your first just remember: carve a little and check thoroughly. It is very easy to ruin a volute if you don't have the sequence of events in the right order and one slip and it will turn into a D18 style neck. Looks like you're well on your way though.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

All rough carving is finished. I will need to finish sand everything with a drum sander to get all the bumps and flat spots out. I also need to file the headstock to the final shape and surface the top of the headstock to receive the peghead overlay. I made the headstock thinner than it should to account for the thickness of the headplate (they are quite thick). I need to also finalize the heel end and relieve the back end of the neck then sand it on the body to dial in the correct neck angle. There are some tear outs on the heel cap while carving... the heel is probably skinner than it should, and the volute is lopsided... also there are some tearouts at the back of the peghead because I used a chisel to carve all the extra wood away that was not taken care of by the safety planer. I can fill them with epoxy later on and they won't be noticeable. I'll do my best to even them out but who cares... all the old prewar martin is probably hand carved or something.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com