The Erard Project

Here is a picture of the ribs roughed out, the central spine consists of two pieces (Spruce) that will later be steam bent, and glued, the top bridge is made in a similar fashion. A modern multi laminate bridge can be made cold, and will hold its shape, but with only two laminations, there would be a large amount of spring-back. Below the steaming/laminating form takes shape out of layers of plywood, one side is a single piece attached to a stationary base, the remaining being individual movable blocks. The offset between the blocks is 30 mm, which is the width of the bridge before final shaping. Above the sides of the steam box before assembly, the box is eight feet long, by about six by six inches, just large enough to accommodate the long thin strips of the bridge and spine. Below; the box assembled. The parts to be bent are suspended on a row of half inch Maple dowels that span the interior of the box allowing the steam to penetrate from all sides. Steam comes from a ...

Here are three hand planes that I use most often. The plane on top is a smoothing plane with a higher angle blade, fifty degrees, this helps reduce tearing on figured wood. The sole of this plane is corrugated which reduces suction on very smooth, planar surfaces. In the middle a little rabbeting, low angle block plane good for a lot of things, and good on end grain. The bottom plane is an inexpensive, old, but not antique, Stanley jack plane, that is re-sharpened with a convex curve in the iron, and with addition of small teeth. I use this plane for rough hogging or scrubbing of material. In the photo below you can see three soundboard panels in the drying room, the panel on the left shows the surface produced by this tool. Photo below, detail of the surface, the curvature of the iron allows more material to be removed at a pass, while the teeth minimize tear-out. This panel is in the first stage of thicknessing. The panel in the middle has its final thickness, and is rough s...