My Neck of the Woods

Martin is away on a much deserved vacation this week so no new progress to report.  But I thought it would be interesting to show the process of creating the neck piece including the peg box and carving of the scroll.

In its current form, the almost complete neck piece is pictured below with Martin holding it upside down.

But it actually started just as a big block of Ancient Kauri.  This shows the entire sequence of steps it takes to build this piece over a 4 day period.

This shows the raw block with the neck pattern laid on top.  This is traced out including the scroll pattern and then cut into the horizontal shape.

This shows the traced pattern on the block and the initial peg holes drilled out.

Next, is the addition of a carbon rod to the neck to improve its strength under tension.  Just a hidden touch of technology to improve the overall performance and longevity of the instrument.

Here is the block with the carbon rod ready to be inlaid.

The rod is epoxied into a dado groove that will sit underneath the fingerboard.

The next step gives the block some initial shape.  Following the pattern traced out, the block is cut horizontally to give the neck, peg box, and scroll its first definition.

The next sequence shows the pattern tracing, peg box carve out, and initial vertical cuts.  

The scroll top and the peg box are traced out.

So is the bottom of the scroll and peg box.

The same is done on the opposite end where the neck is joined to the body of the violin.

Next, the peg box is carved out.  I have no idea how this is done so cleanly, and all done with the right angles and depth.

Cross sections are then cut out out to define the initial width of the neck short of the scroll which has to be carved out to reveal the spiral of the scroll.

And now begins the extremely delicate part of carving the scroll.  I can't even imagine how nerve wracking this would be as one wrong move and you start all over again!

And there you have a finely carved scroll and peg box.  Pretty amazing piece of work if you ask me.

The next sequence transforms the flat portions of the neck and scroll into their proper shapes.  

The flat neck is carved away to give its rounder shape.

While this is the initial thickness, it will be further reduced to match the exact measurements of my current violin so that it will feel identical to me when I play.  

The familiar indentations are carved into the back of the peg box...

... and also to the scroll

Here's a look just prior to sanding.

And voila!  The finished scroll and peg box!

The fingerboard is next.

This is made of ebony and is a standard 4 string width fingerboard.  As I have described previously, Martin's design uses standard string spacing, but pushes the strings further out to the edge of the fingerboard to fit in the extra string.  This gives the neck a familiar feel while maintaining traditional string spacing.  The bottom of the fingerboard is then carved out to give it the proper thickness.

And then it is attached to the neck.  Additionally, a carbon pin is inserted from the bottom of the neck piece to hold it all in place.

And there you have it.  A completed neck piece.  There will be some fine adjustments such as the tapering of the neck to match what I'm used to and the fitting of the pegs into the peg holes.  But once the body of the violin is finished, the two pieces can then be married together for life.

Come back next week as we see what additional progress has been made on the top and bottom pieces with the purfling, as well as the sides with the ribs.