Shaping the neck blank
First I squared up the neck block and then marked the outline and scroll detail from the template I had made out of perspex and rough cut the outline on the bandsaw. Then I drilled the pilot holes for the pegs taking care to angle each hole slightly so that the pegs would be drawn into the box by the string tension.
Then I used gouges and files to get the correct outline before marking the details of the fingerboard, pegbox and scroll.
Then I carefully sawed out the scroll a section at a time and then used gouges to get close to the finished shape.
I used scrapers and files to get to the finished shape.
I started the pegbox by sawing the sides and then used a sharp knife to continue deepening the sides and hogged out carefully with a chisel aiming at a bottom thickness of 5mm.
Then I used a gouge and scrapers to carve out the fluting on the back and scroll.
Fingerboard
I had a nice clean ebony blank for the fingerboard and easily flattened the back and planed to the correct width profile.
I made a simple profile template out of a piece of rib set to 42mm radius and used this to guide the shaping of the fingerboard aiming at side heights of 5.5mm. There was a lot of material to remove and when I got close I moved to scrapers. Finally I scraped out the fingerboard relief at about 0.5mm on the treble and 0.75mm on the bass.
I used a few small spots of weak glue to tack the fingerboard to the neck and set about cutting the neck joint.
Neck joint
First I planed the root of the neck to size and then carefully transferred the width measurements to the ribs and used a scalpel to cut the ribs making sure I cut the slut slightly narrow.
I marked the position on the side of the neck where it should intersect the top of the belly plate giving a standoff of 6.4mm and a distance to the nut of 130mm and then marked the top of the mortice on the belly and cut down with a scalpel before using a chisel to carefully deepen the slot.
It is a very iterative process gradually deepening and widening the slot, planing the heel to fit and checking for the fingerboard projection at the bridge of 27mm.
After several hours I got it all to fit perfectly so it would just hold dry fitted.
After letting the glue dry I started to shape the button and neck with chisels and then files. My aim was to get the total depth of neck + fingerboard at the nut to be 18.5mm and 20.5mm near the heel.
Now for a final clean up and into the light box for a few weeks.
It looks as if the instrument is going to weigh in at about 415g once finished with all its fittings.