Finished My First Head Carving

[Chris Paulick]

Inspired by Weissgerber Guitar's carvings by Paul Uhlemann, some great stuff by the way.
Now onto the front since I have some practice time under the gouge...

[John Sonksen]

Incredible.

[Bob Gramann]

Wow! Nice work.

[Bob Francis]

Great stuff Chris

[Ryan Mazzocco]

Wow! that's incredible! That kind of stuff just amazes me. So much talent.

[Bill Raymond]

Nice job Chris! I'm curious: how did you do that "stippling" in the background. Is that just small gouge marks, or done with some other tool?

[Mark Swanson]

That's really nice Chris! It's good to see you posting, maybe as you do the front an "in progress" photo or two would be nice!

[Chris Paulick]

Thanks all, the stippling was done with a high speed pneumatic hand piece like a denist drill with a small carbide ball bit. Much faster then taking the background dow and stippling with a nail or punch. Since I have had the drill for many years now I figured I use finally use it. Everything else was done with carving chisels, gouges, knives and some gun stock checkering liners. I may use the power carver a little more in the future but I want to master the hand tools first. If I want to go out side in a park or something to carve I can't very well take a noisy compressor with me.
If you all interested in seeing my influences on this then check out the links below. I hope others will want to give it ago as well.
Check out the pages in the book.

http://www.guitarsalon.com/p4002-master ... erber.html
https://www.facebook.com/chris.paulick? ... 731&type=1
https://www.facebook.com/chris.paulick? ... 731&type=1
Chistian an amazing Luthier also did the photos for the book and has done repairs and resto work or Weissgerber Guitars.

Might do that Mark. But keep in mind I'm just learning this stuff myself and fumbling along much like with my lutherie.

[Dave Anderson]

Looks great Chris !

[Chris Paulick]

Mark here are some pics of the prgression of the carving.
A ruff idea drawing which changed after I started as you will see.

[Chris Paulick]

Laid it out with what I had on hand. I've gotten a better set of deviders and plan on making a new marking devise for the front which is mush like a violin purfling marker/cutter.

[Chris Paulick]

Started to carve.

[Chris Paulick]

Next weekend still trying to get my head around this carving technic and getting that modified thumb nail pattern down.

[Chris Paulick]

Purchased some gunstock carving checkering liners that maKe some clean straight 60 degree cuts that cleaned up the carving . Is that cheating???

[Chris Paulick]

Can you see the differance? Also did some refinement on the thumb nails. Starting to get my head around it some now. Funny how the eye will notice if they are out of line with each other. The devil's in the details everywhere.

[Chris Paulick]

Scrolls is another learning experiance too...but starting to come together. Starting to get a better handle on paying more attention to grain direction and finding out about what sweeps are needed to use for scrolls. Watched an old Woodwright Shop video where someone touched base on some scroll technic but not much. Also bought a new mag visor..

[Chris Paulick]

Added the shell and such. Shell needs shaped and refined.

[Chris Paulick]

Finished photo again just so you don't have to scroll to the top to compare. I did under cut and define the bottom of the shell a bit more this morning though. There is a spit coat of shellac that I brushed on with a craft artist brush on this. I think I might just go with an oil finish on the front. Maybe that fretboard finishing oil that StewMac sales since I have it, not sure yet, maybe boiled linseed with 10% turbintine.
Borrowed that conical valute from Weissgerber too. I think its more elegant then the dimond myself.
Hope you all enjoyed seeing these. Haven't made any tuts or such in a while.

[Michael Lewis]

Pretty fancy! How do you top that?

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

Fantastic, super nice work!