Over the holidays I managed to make some progress with the cittern. I have been working on the radiused fretboard which is made from a nice, black, ebony. Before I cut the slots I made a new slotting jig, with roller bearings for the saw blade, depth stops and an indexing system for the fret spacing. This worked well initially, but the saw was sticking badly in each slot beofe the correct depth was achieved. I eventually switched to finishing the slots by hand, but even then I had to use candle wax on the saw blade (which I wasn't happy about).
In the photo, the fretboard is only clamped to the neck - it is located in place by some tiny dowels (made from toothpicks) which will stop it slipping about when I glue it in place.
The bowlback has been fitted with its last side pieces as well as a macassar ebony peghead veneer which will match its fretboard (and probably pickguard too). I'm now ready to start the belly - this presnts some difficult challenges on account of the 'fold' - watch this space...
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