Scroll and Pegbox

Using a template, I have drawn the outline of the scroll, pegbox and neck on a nice piece of well-figured maple. The position of the pegholes is also marked.

I am cutting out the shape, keeping the bandsaw blade just outside the line (and my thumb well away from the blade).

The scroll, pegbox and neck have been released from the block. The pegholes have also been drilled and will be taken to their final size with a reamer at a later stage. I will use rasps and files to bring the shape down to the final outline.

Apologies for the focus! I have marked the outline of the neck, pegbox and scroll and will now stat to develop the shape using gouges and chisels.

The sides of the pegbox have now been established using chisels and gouges around the curved heel. Next step will be to rough out the spiral curves of the volute.

Careful sawcuts (I use a Japanese "pull" saw) are made at a tangent to the scroll curves and down to the line marking the edge of the scroll. Waste wood is taken off with a chisel to leave a a square enclosing the first turn of the volute. The reamining excess wood is taken off with gouges which fit the curve as closely as possible.

By continuing the same process as in the previous picture I have arrived at this stage. Its still pretty rough, but its beginning to look like a scroll and it will be considerably refined later.

These are the gouges that have been used in taking the scroll to this stage.

Hollowing out the pegbox using a gouge sharpened on the inside of the curve and pushing it forward with a rotatory motion. Final finishing will be with riffler files and chisels. The pencil line is the the depth that I must not exceed!!

The chamfer has been put on the edge of the scroll and pegbox and I am starting to to form the fluting. I make two initial gouge tracks on each side which will then be merged before finishing with scrapers.

Fluting is completed and now I just need to tidy up the whole scroll and pegbox with scrapers.

These are the scrapers I have used in finishing the scroll and pegbox. The next step will be fitting the fingerboard and shaping the neck.