Martin Style 00 12 fret guitar now with strings!

[Darryl Young]

Looking good! I like that binding on the fretboard, nice contrast.

[johnnparchem]

Finally back to this guitar and on to the neck. I thought I can show how I carved this neck. I find it best to get all of the square dimensions really close before carving.

I roughed out the head stock, In the past I have taped on my template and used a template bit in my router to shape it. Twice now I had the template slip, so this time I cut close with the band saw and cleaned up the edges with a block plane and scraper.



I used my Christmas present to profile the neck to very close to the fret board. I still leave a little to have some working room. But I did get it very close and even.



I used my Safe-T planer to take the head stock with the veneer to just proud of 5/8"



I marked off the neck profile and used a belt sander to get close.




The roughed out neck on the guitar.



With the neck basically roughed out, I used a template to draw the end cap and on the cheeks the profile of the heel. I also redrew all of my center line to get ready for carving. There are a lot of ways to carve a neck but here is what I found works best for me.

Using only long sweeping strokes, much like one would use a knife, I start removing wood that is farthest from my guide lines on the heel, cheeks and top. The sweeping motion assures that smooth curves are being established. While following the heel and end cap lines I work to the point that I am sort of an even distance away from all of the lines. From that point I just patiently use very long sweeping stokes working one side of the heel toward my guide lines. On the top I look for the carved heel to evenly approach the center line. Doing this most of the curves come naturally as the thickness of the wood changes.








Then I turn it over and do the other side.


Here is the rough carved heel on the guitar. I will carve the neck after lunch.

[johnnparchem]

Carving a neck with my Christmas LN spokeshave is a dream come true. I worked out my neck profile for the first and 8th fret on paper, drew a tangent line and measured where to put a couple of lines on the neck to take off most of the corner. I then used the spokeshave to make a facet down the neck. If I was the patient type I would have drawn a bunch of more lines for finer facets but after the first even face on both sides I just eyeballed the rest. I used a chisel to finish off the peg board and blend it in.

The neck still needs a bit more work, but first I need to get the inlays in the fret board and glue it on.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Looking very nice John. I'm a bit envious of the LV spokeshave. I have a cheapie that doesn't work well at all.
I might have to upgrade. I like how shaped the heel.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

Kevin, did I mention in my post that I really like my Christmas spokeshave :).

[B. Howard]

very nice! also glad to see another person who would rather burn calories than electrons :-)

[johnnparchem]

Thanks Brian, I do like sharp tools.

I put the inlays in the fret board today. Thank goodness for ebony fret boards. I am not sure I am ready for rosewood yet. I am getting better with the router but I need to work on making a nice clean line. I used a pencil this time, the next time I will try a sharp awl scribe and chalk. The other thing I will try next time is to route the inlay rebates before I radius it. The top birds were long enough that the radius did matter.

In any case here are the pictures of what I did

I used a dab of LMI glue to tack the inlays down where I wanted them and trace them with a pencil. I routed the rebates with a pneumatic micro die grinder. I just used the ebony routing dust with CA to fill my mistakes.

[Legolas]

Very nicely done.....

[Kevin Sjostrand]

John, the inlays look perfect!

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

John, the inlays look perfect!

Kevin

The wonders of ebony :). On my third guitar I slipped and routed right into a fret slot with a good sized bit 3/16ths. I was able to hide the error to the point that I can not find it today.

I had nothing that bad this time.