Scraping the recurves: Easy but tedious.

Since the start of this project, I've been mystified and a little intimidated by "scraping the recurves" on the tops and backs. By introducing a concavity around the rims, the tops and backs are thinned, and become more resonant. I left a flat area of between 1 and 1 1/2" inches all around where this concavity would go, then hoped for the best until the past 3 days, which I spent scraping and scraping and scraping.

Truthfully, I haven't had a lot of experience with fine, thin card scrapers. I've planed and sanded and cut, but light scraping just hasn't been part of my regular woodworking routine. Especially not using a curved scraper, which I wan't even sure I could sharpen well/

But it turned out fine. I'm not sure my scraping achieved a tone like Bob Benedetto's, but the bodies are much more "alive" now to the touch. Taps are deeper and last longer.

Before I could scrape, I had to install little 1" bone pieces for the tailpiece wires to bear against. Fussy work with a sharp knife and a 1/4" chisel. When I ground down the bone to fit flush on top, the shop smelled like a dentist's office.

Scraping one of the backs. I reground a scraper iron from a tool I never use to the curve  shown on the plan, then spent three days using this tool an another "french curve" scraper, which I sharpened about a half dozen times. Each push or pull of the scraper brings up a tiny curl which I'll guess is no more than  a thousandth of an inch thick. The good news is that when the scrapers were sharp, they didn't tear out grain at the upper or lower ends, where it was completely cross-grain.  I'm a scraper fan now, but I won't underestimate the time it takes. 

While I was scraping, Spring happened, and I was able to work outdoors for most of the process. The two scrapers are shown here. I'm amazed how much wood I actually removed. 

One of the bone pieces after the recurves were in. 

With the recurves scraped in and all surfaces rough sanded fair, the bodies of the guitars are concluded, except for a big mortise in each for the neck, which I'm not going to tackle right now. In this photo, you can see the slightly wavy, asymmetrical match of the two back pieces for one of the guitars, which is going to look pretty nice, I think. On to the necks!