I spent time today sharpening and burnishing my scrapers. What a difference it made! Long transparent, tissue-thin ribbons of wood came rolling from under the scraper as I put it to the maple back. I used the scraper to remove all of the larger tool marks off both sides of the back piece. Very enjoyable work. I then put it to use on the spruce top and realized what others had been saying. Spruce is a whole other animal. What it means is that it resists scraping and rips easily. I had to work carefully but eventually switched to sandpaper. In fact, I had to use sandpaper a lot today, after noticing that (even after scraping) the back piece remained with waves (high and low spots) in the wood. The waves were long enough so that the scraper just followed them, rather then "plane" them down. What did the trick was 80 grit paper on a small wood block. I think the block is essential to make sure the paper contacts only the high spots. I'm not quite done with the rough paper process, but made a lot of progress. Good lighting is important for seeing the small high spots in the wood.
I also took some preliminary plate thickness measurements today and compared them to the Siminoff book. In general, the center point of the plates (thickest part) is thinner on the IV kit, compared with Siminoff. The min areas are thicker though and I am relieves since it looks like there is room to build more of a recurve.
Next on the agenda is to graduate the top and back and shape the recurve, before dealing with the cutting of the hole.
