question fortop/back plate carvers

[Brian Evans]

I don't know why I am worrying about this issue this morning, but I am so I thought I would ask. When I start to carve a plate, the edge is roughly sawn to the outline of the rim, I tend to leave maybe a quarter inch extra that gets trimmed off after the plate is glued to the top. Now, for some reason, I am worried that I will shape the arch to the rough-sawn outside, not to the actual eventual finished edge, and it will be wrong. What do other people do to work around this. For the life of me I can't remember what I did when I carved my previous top and back plates, and it has me all discombobulated...

[Mike Conner]

Brian, Your concern is a valid one, in the sense that the extra stock at the edges can lead your eye astray. My way around this is to measure from the center line of the plate when laying out the arch contours. Also, since I am planning on doing a recurve after assembling the box, I can leave the outer 1.5" or so at the "full" thickness (0.250" for front plates, 0.190" for back plates). So far with the 8 instruments I've completed its worked out fine. For the latest ones I did trim the plates a little closer to the finished dimensions since my confidence that the plates will fit the sides was higher, and I use reverse kerfing that keeps the rims stiffer and pretty stable.

[Alan Carruth]

I've always done it the way I learned to with violins. The plates are taken to rough thickness, a millimeter or more high, with a thick edge. Then they're pinned or spot glued to the rim, and trimmed exactly to shape. Then you finish up the edge, and do the rest of the arch.

[Randolph Rhett]

I too work with exact shape plates with no intentional overhang.