Im about to build my first archtop instrument. What tools should I use to carve the plates?
A. Our members have used a number of different hand and power tools with great success. For hand tools you have the choices of rasps, saw-rasps (very coarse), Microplanes and SurForms (preferred over rasps if you don’t have either, yet), square and curved hand scrapers, carving spoons, chisels and gouges, carving shaves, and hand and palm planes. Many of our members have made a small wood-body palm plane from a sketch in our Library provided by archtop guitar maker Bill Moll. For power tools some of our members recommend Kutzall sanding/carving tools. The Kutzall disk is a 4″ diameter carbide toothed attachment made to fit a standard angle grinder. At speeds of 10,000 rpm and below it removes hardwood stock very aggressively, yet with good control. As with all power cutters, never over-feed the tool. Make multiple shallow passes until you almost reach your desired depth. Then proceed with 80-120 grit sanding, etc. When the cutter is loaded with material, remove it from the grinder, and
