Wood Shaping

Hello world.

So today (for the entire day) I decided to begin the task of sanding the edges of the body, and curving all the edges using a spokeshave.



I marked the edges out in pencil so that I can see on each side where the curve starts and ends. Luckily with curves you can sand them in so they all look ok together. Which means that if there are a few errors they can be fixed quickly!

I started on the back first so any catastrophic mistakes would not be as noticeable. luckily this did not happen.



When I began using the spokeshave patterns like the picture below appeared in the wood.



I later discovered that this was due to an excess amount of the spokeshave blade coming into contact with the wood. This wasn't a problem as after each go with the spokeshave I used sandpaper to smooth the wood out, being that I spent the first hour or so paranoid that I was going to ruin this lovely piece of wood!

After awhile I calmed down and began to enjoy the spokeshaving process (geek!). I found it theraputic, except for the fact that as with all wood working tools, you have to sharpen the blade every 5 mins or so of use to keep the edge razor sharp.



This is quite tedious and is done using a sharpening block and some 3 in one oil. The process of sharpening isn't so bad, it's taking the spokeshave apart with a screwdriver everytime that's annoying.



After alot of sanding you end up with a smooth curve all along the edges. This isn't very even at the moment, but will be sorted during the final stage before applying the lacquer,

After the back was completed I moved onto the front. Spontaneously I decided to add an arm rest like you find on a strat as I felt it would be more comfortable, plus it's another feature that makes this Telecaster unique.



I did this with the same spokeshave. I drew a line diagonally across the surface of the guitar where the arm rest would stop. I removed small sections of wood at a time and sanded as I went along to check the progress.

Once I finished the arm rest I continued curving the rest of the guitar until finished.



This is the almost-finished article. More sanding will take place just before the painting and the final finish to remove any dents or blemishes from the wood.

Next step will be routing the wood, once I buy a dremel tool (may be a week or so).

-L