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How do you hold the top and back plates steady when carving braces.
Do you use a special jig?
Do you use some sort of special mat to lay the top/back on?

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Formerly know as Mandodiddle.

I have a little table a bit bigger than the top or back, with 3" legs. It gets the work a bit higher, allows for clamps, and I can drape it over the side of the bench to work at an angle. Old school, no vaccum, nothing fancy. Saw it in an old workbench book; it's what Somogyi was using at the time.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Non slip router mats, one under the radius dish, one in…

I show my setup here:

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=55545&hilit=Total+vise

I’m very, very happy with it. I use workboards that are dished out for the applicable radius of the braces: 28’ for the top, 15’ for the back. These are mounted to a Total Vise mounting plate, and the mounting plate goes into the Crossover Mini, which goes into a base that is bolted to my workbench through dog holes. Solid as a rock, but capable of being positioned however I want. Not cheap, but if your back bothers you, this is a great way to work.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Non slip router mat, radius dish in go-bar deck and 2/3 go-bars.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Left hand, palm down on the top (on a piece of carpet). Right hand holding chisel. I use a half inch chisel with a long handle, rounded corners on the tip, and bevel down. It is very sharp, takes light cuts, and doesn’t need much pressure. I turn the carpet as I cut rather than the top so that I’m not marring the top with any cutoff pieces. When I pick up the top to tap, that’s when I dump the shavings from the top and the carpet.

Just what I use, that and some care.

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Peter Havriluk