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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Even more like a spoon

I have now hollowed out the bowl of the gittern and added a little relief carved snail to mark it as my own. No date though otherwise my sister might get caught in an anachronism.

The bolwback arrived safely. I am going to make some technical drawings and then take it to bits so I can figure out how it was put together. I'll then make one of my own (and might be able to restore the old one too, who knows).

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A big spoon

I have worked on the gittern body shape, and it now looks like an oversized wooden spoon! There's still a bit more to come off the neck area, and the bowl is yet to be hollowed out. Still, it's progress.

Meanwhile, I have finally got around to buying (on ebay) an old bowlback mandolin. I will use this to start preparing plans to construct one of my own in the future.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A new start

I have just made a start on the gittern for my sister. I sawed up the great lump of sycamore that will become the bowl and neck and started the shaping. Learning my lesson from the Les Paul I have made use of a router as well as my trusty bandsaw. It's also birthday season and I now have a copy of Robert Lundberg's book on lute construction, which is fantastic.