Inlay

More Progress:

Sanded the neck down to a glassy-smooth surface, applied some test stain, drilled and reamed peg holes, glued dowel to neck, mapped out f-holes. I took these photos with my phone, so they're not exactly super crisp.

Progress

This is what happens when you don't properly level off the base of a new bridge after cutting it. (takes a minute to load if you've got a slow connection)

Just spent several hours fitting the heel of the neck to the gourd. To be perfectly honest, this is by far my least favorite part of the process. You have to match the exact shape of the gourd vertically, horizontally and with respect to the proper neck pitch. In order to accomplish this, a contour gauge (pictured below) is extremely helpful. Right now the fit is about 95% complete. I'll clean it up tomorrow, and then fit the neck/dowel through the gourd. As always, click the thumbnails for full sized images.


Contour gauge


Measuring the outer shell of the gourd


Heel carved out to match the gourd.


Neck fit about 95% perfectly to gourd. A little more work and this will be done.

The most unpleasant part of the process is cleaning out the gourd. It's full of toxic molds and fine particles that irritate the lungs, both of which take a long time to clean out.

Gourd just after being cut open, note the seed balls and detritus:





After being arduously scraped clean:

Neck shaping is done; dowel stick is cut.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the figure has come out spectacularly well. I can't wait to see it with stain and oil. Finish sanding won't take place until after assembly is done, but before stain is applied.