My satiric and sarcastic friend George dubbed this experimental Pinecone "Holey Moley", and so it shall be known. Anyway, it is coming along nicely, now with sides, and tentalones top and bottom. I am figuring out where and how to drill the three small side sound ports. So far i am still liking the look.
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To get to this point we had to do lots of gluing on of tentalones, Here is what it looked like.
And then begin the great battle of the rasps. Really a contest between two cultures, which rasp is better for shaping the maple back, The newly acquired Shinto rasp from Japan, or the classic western toothed rasp thats I have used for years. Time to test them, mano A mano.
I have gained great respect for Japanese wood working tools over the years. Consider how much better Japanese "pull" handsaws are than western "push" saws. The Japanese have been consummate woodworkers for thousands of years. I have already made great use of this Shinto rasp, It tried valiantly, but it is a fine toothed one, I did not buy the coarse toothed model so this western rasp won the battle. It hogged off the wood faster. I will use the Shinto to provide the finish job.
Here I have begun the crowning of the Concert back. The convex back is shaped first, then the concave interior can be carved out to match the external curvature.
The concert back now done, I have begun on the back for Holey Moley. This one is thicker. will take a little more work but this hand work is fun.
