Jon, I've made molds from pine lumber which works fine albeit harder to carve but the best is bass wood or boxwood. Basswood carves like butter and is easy to finish. As an avant-garde touch, you can carve the mould without facets so that the number of ribs can be varied or a multi-rib (39 or so) can be made if you're feeling particularly industrious.
Best, Rob Dorsey http://RobDorsey.com -----Original Message----- From: Jon Murphy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 2:08 AM To: lute-builder Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: Lute - Baroque Guitar All, I think Rob has convinced me to can my skeletal form and make a solid one. I like the idea of sculpting the air within the body, and as a woodcarver I have all the tools and skills for shaping a solid form. The confidence I'll gain from having the form fully shaped will probably get me off my butt to make the body of my incipient lute. Dan's method is attractive in the apparent speed of the process, but I doubt I could accomplish it without being "hands on" at his workshop (which is tempting, but June is a long time away). Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
