Ever since I built a carved top Curly Maple Les Paul electric guitar a few years ago, I've wanted to build carved-top mandolins and archtop guitars. I have found a lot of joy and relaxation in the carving and shaping process. About a year ago, my good friend and mentor, Mario Proulx, gave me one of his special Red Spruce tops. In addition, I still have a few choice Curly Maple boards left over from the Les Paul project. So check out how I'm approaching my new special project.

Here are some pics of the recent mandolin project:

The above pic shows some high quality 5/8" thick wood blocks for the back and top. The top wood on the right was a gift from my Canadian friend Mario Proulx who cut the wood years ago from a tree that essentially grew in his back yard of WAY Northern Ontario. The Curly Maple was left over from a Les Paul electric project I completed 3 years ago. The template not only shows the perimeter of the mandolin but also shows the plate thicknesses for various areas.

This pic shows a topographical map that includes the first of the major hole depths to which the outside curve must be carved. The thickness will eventually vary from 0.22" at the center to 0.09" around certain sections of the perimeter. My first objective will be to roughly remove material to the bottom of the holes in order to get a general curvature started. The rough tools for hogging out materials include the Wagner planer, a block plane as well as chisels of various shapes.

Here we begin to see some of the many curls of wood that are being removed. As we get closer to our desired profile, we begin working with the more gentle tools like finger planes, scrapers and 80 grit sandpaper blocks of various shapes.

Side lighting positioned during this process helps us to better see and shape the profile as it gets closer to final form. We shape the outside profile first before hollowing out the inside of the plate and getting closer to the important thicknesses.

The inside profile is beginning to take shape. I found the curved finger plane to be my most effective means to remove wood. I don't have the air-powered angle grinders and accessories to quickly remove material so the more quiet tools are fine for me right now.

In the meantime, other components have been coming together. The following pictures represent those efforts:

The neck is made from a 3 piece bookmatched block of highly figured Hard Maple separated by a thin decorative strip of mahogany down the center.

Along with the neck blank, I selected a nicely figured Honduras Rosewood board and slotted for a 13-7/8" scale. The headstock design is a rather traditional snakehead pattern.

Meanwhile, the body came to shape with the sides being bent on a hot pipe and glued to the Mahogany neck and tail blocks. Here we see the solid liners being glued to the sides. As always, I use either Hot Hide Glue or Fish Glue for all of my joinery.

The above picture represents a simulated body and 2 necks made from common pine. The purpose of this is to experiment with a standard and modified dovetail joint in order to determine which is better and more capable of attaining that perfect neck angle as it relates to its projection to the proper location at the bridge. This is just one of the "behind-the-scenes" learning experiments that I have always conducted when I just have to know before moving forward on prime-time wood. I would HATE to waste that cool-looking figured Maple neck!

Here's a roughed out bridge and saddle carved from Brazilian Rosewood. I'm pleased with the bridge but need to fine tune the saddle. I'm planning to make several saddles from different materials to determine their effects on voicing.

So that's all for now, folks! As I achieve more progress, I'll update accordingly. Thanks for looking.