Shaping the root and the sides of the neck

1. Using your saw, start making incisions at both sides of the neck, about 1 cm apart, starting with the neck root on up to the heel. Make sure you stop 1 mm short both of the fingerboard and the line on the underside. See Fig. 1. for reference.
   
2. With a chisel chop off the resulting blocks of wood, working away from the fingerboard. To keep the splitting under control, work gradually, removing slices rather than whole blocks.
   
3. Finish the 10 mm wide part "a" in Fig. 2., adjacent to the fingerboard, with a file. The file should be slightly angled away from the fingerboard. Be careful not to cut into the fingerboard too much. Create a surface that flows smoothly into the fingerboard sides. See Fig. 2. for the enlarged cross section of the finished neck.
   
4. Using a block plane, finish the sides of the neck root up to the scribed lines. Be careful not to dent the fingerboard edges extending beyond the root.
   
   

Shaping the neck

1. First, take a look at Fig. 3., namely the neck "A". Scribe two marks "a" and "b" on each side of the neck, at the distance of 25 mm from the nut and 50 mm from the neck root.
   
2. On both sides, mark the thicknesses "c" 19 mm and "d" 21 mm /18.5 and 20.5 being the final thicknesses on the finished neck/ in these areas, measured including the fingerboard.
   
3. Connect these with a straight line "f" on both sides.
   
4. Measure 110 mm from the heel towards the neck root and make a mark "e", which will serve to position the template.
   
5. If you haven't already, create a neck template as you have your other templates before. Again, you can print out the template in Fig. 3., glue it to the templating material and transfer the outline this way.
   
6. Using this template, transfer the contour marked "root" so that it is aligned with the mark on the neck root. Use the "chin" end of the template to transfer the contour of the heel on the unfinished heel. Repeat on the other side.
   
7. Take look at neck "B" in Fig. 3.. Make incisions 1 cm apart ending 1 mm clear of the two dashed lines you just created.
   
8. Chop off the wood blocks in the same manner as you did on the sides of the neck.
   
9. Along the length of the underside of the neck, scribe a parallel line at about 1/3 distance from the fingerboard, see Fig. 4. The same on the other side.
   
10. Between these two lines the wood can be safely removed using a rasp. It may be difficult to clamp the neck in the vice for this, so try opening the vice just enough to lay one side and part of the top of the fingerboard on the vice. Hold with your hand and file away.
    
11. Level the underside of the neck and get to the final numbers, check with the template often. With a rasp make the coarse outline of the neck.
    
12. Using a file, start getting closer to the final curvature of the neck, check often with the template "g" and "h" at the points "c" and "d". Keep checking the thicknesses in these points too. When the template almost fits, you should be close to the numbers "c" 19 mm and "d" 21 mm.
    
13. Using your knife, create the shape of the nape, make sure its contour flows smoothly into the pegbox sidewalls.
    
14. Using your knife, roughly form the round shape of the heel. The final shaping is done later with the neck glued on.

    The final shaping of the neck is done later with the neck glued on.
    

15. Trim the ends of the nut so that they are flush with the finished surfaces. They should form a smooth transition from the sides of the fingerboard, usually widening a little to accommodate the peg box walls. Finish with fine file.