The basic workshop for making lute bodies
The bending iron
inverted plane
glue pot
lute mold
Using glass headed pins to hold ribs in place
while being glued on the mold
lines are black boxwood
A finished but not yet cleaned up lute body
joint cut in body with 33 ribs
ready for neck
joint cut in body with 13 cherry and sycamore ribs
ready for neck
The pegbox
Shaping the neck after cutting joints to neck and pegbox
An old rose showing clean knife cuts - a hint at the method of rose cutting
Rose cut into soundboard, sunlight can be seen shining through the ribs
hazel rods of just the right length used
as clamps for bars
glued to the back of the soundboard
The bars glued on and shaped
A lute on my workbench, just before attaching the soundboard to the body.
Here the luthier should be at work. Even in 1568 it's hard to resist a play now and again. Note the lute body without a neck on the workbench (perhaps it's meant to be a mold), the glue pot on the floor, the means to cleave wood along the grain, and the bowed instrument mold hung on the wall. My workshop has a nice window too.
The cooper uses the inverted plane in a manner similar to a lute makers technique for shaping lute ribs.
View from the workshop window.
Pleased you could visit - go on, click on my photo - if you can receive sounds!!!!
Art