As it turn out, it's becoming Graduation Week here in the shop. That's my cello back resting on top of the bench. I'm removing the inside material so that I end up with a piece of wood that is concave on one side and convex on the other. Various areas in that piece of wood need to end up at different thicknesses called graduations. The amount of material I remove, and where I remove it will determine the way the back vibrates, and along with the vibrations of the top, the sound will be produced. All well and good, except that I remove the wood by hand primarily by using two hand planes. I thought it would take me a morning and half an afternoon to do the graduation, so I thought yesterday was "graduation day". Shortly after noon, due to the physical nature of the work, I could do no more. I resumed graduating this morning and called it quits again this afternoon before I pulled a muscle or injured a tendon. Perhaps tomorrow I will finish the graduations. I'm at the fun part now. I will remove minor amounts of material from different areas to get the wooden back to flex appropriately, achieve a desired weight range and produce a certain tone when I tap on it. Then I will give my muscles and joints a few days to recover. The good news is that I think I can finish and play this cello (without varnish) by the end of January.
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