Violin Making 7

Over the past few weeks I have really plowed ahead on the scroll. Actually, I tend to get a little obsessive about projects like this and can be found doing this when I should be doing other things. Anyway, I finished carving both turns and the underside. I started off using gouges, but ended up favoring primarily the knife. I made a small curved scraper out of an old screwdriver to clean the corners really well. I can see why makers prefer using wood with a plainer grain on the scroll as carving the figured wood is quite challenging. However, carving is one of the places I tend to shine and I think the pictures will bear me out on that as I think the whole thing is turning out quite well. If I again make a Strad pattern violin I think I'll just buy a pre-carved scroll and do the finish work. Cheating you say? Well maybe, but I'm basically getting the same results with a lot more effort, I don't call it cheating, I call it divergent thinking!

Next step on the scroll is to hollow out the peg box, then I can start thinking about the fingerboard. Hopefully my rib pieces will arrive soon so I can finish the outline and move onto the top and back plate. Thanks for reading!