Sen's Guitar Making Blog: Fingerboard

2009-06-22

Fingerboard

Wooden planes vs Metal planes

I bought some more wooden planes at the Kelantan Lane.
After using the wooden plane I have grew to like it more.

They are light and handy unlike the western planes which are heavy.
When planing top down, the western plane it's a good thing as the additional weight will be an advantage.
However when shooting the sides, it will be bulky and difficult to handle.
Using wooden plane requires less energy.

When it comes to adjustment of the iron, it is very easy to adjust the wooden plane. Just a few taps will do the trick. (See previous post)
Adjusting the western plane is quite troublesome.
1) Loosen the iron cap
2) Adjust the turn screw
3) Lock the iron cap
and repeat until u get the right shavings.
Unlike most wood worker who adjust the plane and leave it alone, I will retract the blade after I use it and re-adjust in the next session.
Well I that's just me...

Whether used in a pull fashion or push fashion, the wooden plane feels the same.
Compared to using the western plane, the push is easy, but pulling is almost impossible.
Japanese kanna (plane) is used in a pull method; but chinese planes are used in a push method.
However, the Chinese plane can easily be used in a pull method.

As I grew to like the wooden plane I will try and see if I can get hold of the larger sized planes.

Wooden plane from big to small.

My family of wooden planes; Look at the plane iron, it's much thicker than the western counter parts.

Fingerboard
Then I worked on the fingerboard cutting the curve for the sound hold region.
I use my paring chisel to remove the material and then smoothen with file and then
finally scraper.
I find that the scraper works better than sandpaper in giving a smoother finish.

I encounter a serious problem with the finger.
In the normal sequence of building, the neck is a rough neck as in the main body of the neck is shaped last after the fingerboard is glued in.
My neck was a pre-made neck so I had to fit the fingerboard to fit the neck.
The problem I face was that after fitting the fingerboard, I discover the fingerboard wasn't square to the center line.
This will cause intonation tuning issues.
Thus to compensate I had to reduce the fingerboard width at the neck from 52mm to about 48-49mm.
Not much problem there as my Gutmeier had a 49mm neck at the nut.
After dealing with this issue, I discover even the simple thing as fingerboard is not so simple as it seems.
This explains why other luthiers build jigs to simplify the process and most importantly to make the fingerboard consistently fitting and square to the center line.
In my next build I'll probably build a jig for this.

In a way, well having more problem means building up more experience.
I am glad that I manage to overcome this.

Cutting the fingerboard with the coping saw

Another view

Removing the material using the paring chisel

From the other way

Reversing blade to follow the curve better.

Close up of the chiselling

Using file to shape the curves

The clamping set up

The final product w/o the scraping yet.

Front view

Close up view

Close up view the other angle

From the neck view. U can see the center line which I drew.

Sharpening the tools
Well in order now to fit the neck to the fingerboard, I had to remove some neck material.
I got a spokeshave lying around somewhere.
I didn't use it last time because the blade had some burr which damage my sides...
So I to try my hands at sharpening.
First I straighten the back first on the rough grit (gotta check the numbers) and then on the fine grit.
Then I sharpen the bevel.
I make use of my honing guide, but I discover I worked faster using free hand.
Just a few strokes the plane iron was as good as it can be.
I never knew sharpening can be so easy?
Then I try my hands at sharpening the block plane iron (which had some nicks in it) and then some chisels.
All was done free hand.
I am glad it's so easy; Sometimes to get things going we just have to follow the Nike's slogan (Just do it).