After practicing on my MDF-dummy I decided to dive in on the Ash of the real body today. It still is a very modest tummy cut, but the effect is great! The comfort of the body when seated has gone up way more than I expected, just perfect!!

I tried it in a playing position, resting on my left leg. The deep curve on the upper bout of the body falls nicely against your chest, while the tummy cut takes away the ‘sharp’ edge. Together with the lightness of the body you’re hardly aware of the fact that there’s a lump of wood on your lap, which is a good thing imo. Hard to explain, but I will post pictures of that sometime, you’ll see what I mean – although you actually would have to experience it yourself .

I drew a pencil line of the intended curve and used masking tape to follow that line, making it more visible when carving and protecting the rest of the body in the meantime. Started out with the great Stanley surform file:

working with hand tools on wood really feels good. I used a fine coarsed file to smooth things out:

And here it is, finished and sanded up to 180 grit:

And from aside: