Finger planes

Inorder to do much of the shaping of the plates I needed to make some finger planes. I used hard maple for the insole. The sides/rails were made of walnut scraps that I had around from making the backsaw. 

The finger plane pictured below was my first attempt. It cuts well, but I needed to refine the design.

Below is my second attempt. I gave this one an oval outline. For both planes I reused a 1/2" chisel that I cut the blade off. Photos are a little blurry because I took them with my iPhone. The red pen is there to give a sense of scale.

Tenor Ukulele

Cut out the rough shape for my Ukulele using a template I made from plywood and adding an extra bit of material around the outline. i also marked out my bracing and bridge plate.

Here is the top:


here is the back:


I also shaped the sides tapering from 3" to 2.5". I measure about 18" per side, so I added an extra 0.5".