Day 19: Planing and Scraping the Sides

As you may know, my main project is a harpsichord based on an instrument built by Andreaus Ruckers in 1640. As I was sanding the sides and posting about my progress on Facebook, a couple of my Master Harpsichord Builder friends pointed out that I should only use sandpaper sparingly, especially on instruments and tonewoods. Well, this is an instrument, so I switched from the sander to a little bench plane and a card scraper.

Planing and scraping not only leaves a nicer finish, it's vastly easier. I set the planer to take off an astonishingly small amount of wood - enough to make the resaw lines disappear. Then, I scraped to a fine finish. I sprayed a little water on them to raise the grain (through swelling) and finished up with a green Scotch-Brite pad (please don't tell the Masters).

I should have the finishing done on these pieces this week. As soon as they're completed, I will finalize a faux body design and bend the sides. I will also need to build a small jig to hold the pieces while they cool and dry after bending, so that goes on the shortlist, as well.

Until next time...