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To finish off the fretboard it needs sanding. As it turned out, one of those nice colourful streaks was actually a little rougher than the surrounding areas, so I ended up sanding through 100/220/320/400. I normally start with 220. Here it is after sanding. Some people sand way up into the 1000+ range, but I can see my reflection in it now, and the abalone looks much more colourful.
Now its time to carve the profile. I probably won't need all of these tools, but every neck is different. Ideally all I need is a rasp and the little utility plane. If you look carefully at the jig that holds the neck, you can see that I had to replace the end that holds the headstock, so I used a cutoff from the body I cut for this project.
Here's the neck clamped in place. I put two layers of masking tape on the fretboard to keep it from getting dinged.
I love using handtools, and I actually enjoy shaping necks quite a bit. I've come close to building a router jig to make this process easier, but I haven't done it yet. I'll probably give in soon though because reproducing a nice carve is tricky by hand. To start, I use a rasp to take both ends down to almost final thickness. A rasp is a fantastic tool, but it can remove wood like a chainsaw, and it'll leave marks that you'll never sand out.
Once I've reached the depth I want, I continue with the rasp to round to the contour I want at both ends. Here's a closeup of the headstock...
...and both ends.
Now its time to shave the middle section. I like to use a small plane for this. The flat sole of the plane keeps things straight. I start but removing material at a 45 degree angle, then I knock off material on the two resulting sharp edges, and so on.
It starts to round over and eventually meet the rasp line. In this pic, there is still quite a way to go on the side I'm working on.
Once both sides are close to final shape, I rough in a small-ish volute on the spindle sander. I can't really explain this well, its as much voodoo as it is science. In this pic, it looks like I've gone too far, but you can't feel that line, its just a result of the spindle sander sanding in a different direction than the back of the headstock was sanded.
I couldn't really take pictures of the final sanding because, well, my hands were busy sanding! This is also a bit of an art. Most people are tempted to sand this part like they were shining shoes which is not great. Side to side is sanding across the grain. I sort of do an end-to-end motion with a bit of sideways in the mix. I work through 100/220/320/400 (it goes really quickly) and its done. There were only a few problem spots where the plane had made a small divot where it caught a few of the birds-eyes, but those came out with the 100 grit sandpaper. I wiped it down with some mineral spirits to get an idea of what the final look will be. Here's the front...
...and the back. Next comes fretting.
This tool is handy for copying neck profiles, although it goes a little wonky as it comes around the sides of the neck towards the fretboard. Here's the shape and thickness at the first fret.
...and the 12th fret. I guess if you wanted to describe it the shape is somewhere between a 'C' and a 'D'.
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