With the corpus finished, we are ready to make and install a neck. We start with the raw material, a neck block and finger board.
the neck block
We first use a template to trace the shape of the neck on the neck block. We cut out the shape and drill the peg holes.
cut out the shape
Next we pare away the excess wood around the pegbox cheeks.
pegbox cheeks
Then we carve the first turn of the scroll.
first turn
Then we carve the second turn.
second turn
Now we undercut the scroll, carve the volute and pegbox. Clean everything up and glue on the fingerboard.
fingerboard glued
There is a lot of excess wood that needs to be removed and the neck needs to be shaped. It is now ready to install on the corpus.
neck shaped
A mortice is cut in the corpus for the neck. This is the most exacting task in violin making. All dimensions are very critical to the function of the instrument.
neck is glued
We now do the final shaping of the button, heel and chin.
neck shaped
We are now ready to clean everything up and setup the violin for playing!