Heel and volute carving

Storebought or Homemade: Tell Us!
Bob Gleason
Posts: 412
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:45 pm
Contact:

Heel and volute carving

Post by Bob Gleason »

My favorite neck carving aid. Spectacular tool for carving the heel and for finessing the volute. Where ever applicable, carving tools that work are so much more satisfying to use than rasping or sanding tools. Perfectly sized for neck work and shaves wood across the grain with no problem. I don’t use it for the neck shaft, but what it does for the heel and volute make it worth having. Like all nice tools, it’s expensive. Made by Pfeil in Switzerland. Sold by Woodcraft, among others. —Bob
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

I agree that is a good way to do the job, however at $83 that's a very expensive way to do it. My vintage C E Jennings was $10 at a garage sale, and here is a nice Bristol on ebay - on the first page that came up searching for "drawknife":

https://tinyurl.com/y39s3rq5

A drawknife is very easy to sharpen holding your stone in one hand and the tool along the inside of your other forearm.

Ed
Ed M
tippie53
Posts: 7011
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Hegins, Pa
Contact:

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by tippie53 »

you would flip at how I do this
I got real comfortable doing it on my belt sander
I will be doing a video soon on it.

There are always differing ways to do things and I love seeing how others solve the same problem.
thanks for sharing
I have a few draw knives and they are a neat tool.
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
banjopicks
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2019 4:37 pm

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by banjopicks »

I would love to use a belt sander but I can't imagine how you control the dust.
tippie53
Posts: 7011
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Hegins, Pa
Contact:

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by tippie53 »

I use a floor model with a dust collector. I do love to watch a craftsman that is a master of tools. The man at martin used a few different draw knives and spoke shaves along with scrapers. A true master
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
banjopicks
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2019 4:37 pm

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by banjopicks »

A spokeshave is pretty easy to master and makes quick work of neck shaping without the dust. I would still like to try the sander one day. I'll have to move it outside.
MaineGeezer
Posts: 1711
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:14 pm

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by MaineGeezer »

i just put together a rather ragged version of this
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/amer ... ing-horse/
with the thought that it might assist in carving guitar necks. I have yet to try carving a guitar neck using it, but I may someday.
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Maine

I have used a shave horse for chair parts - a great tool when you are doing things by eye and removing lots of mostly green wood. I think that it is not a precise enough tool for making a neck. Having tried a couple of ways, I like one of the 2X-material-turned-on-edge jigs as they let you get to all sides of the blank.

And a drawknife can be a little coarse for some of the steps on a neck. If you have all the tools, then you might try drawknife for gross wood removal, then spokeshave to get it very close, then rasp/file/scraper. You might use the drawknife for a minute or two, then the spokeshave for 5-10 minutes, then on from there.

Ed
Ed M
MaineGeezer
Posts: 1711
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:14 pm

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by MaineGeezer »

Definitely -- when I've carved necks before, a drawknife has been useful for only the preliminary shaping. The shaving horse just gives you another way of holding the neck while you use whatever tool is appropriate at that stage of the operation (drawkknife, spokeshave, plane, rasp, whatever). Whether it will be a useful addition to my regular setup remains to be seen.
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
Bob Gleason
Posts: 412
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:45 pm
Contact:

Re: Heel and volute carving

Post by Bob Gleason »

When I posted the Pfeil drawknife, I knew I would get flack because of the price. I have 2 other vintage drawknives, but the Pfeil is exceptional to work with. As with all hand tool work, whatever works for you, works for you. Happy carving.
Post Reply