Which Plane For Making A Carved Top Soild Body?

[cramis1]

Hi,

Im looking to make a carved body and want to know which planer is necessary to purchase. I found a place that can ship to me a violin maker's plane or there is a store near by that I can buy a spokeshave from. Is it necessary or much easier to use a violin maker's plane in this situation over a spokeshave?

Thanks

[Mattia]

I never found a use for a spokeshave for my tops. Cheap angle grinder with a flap sanding disk, now, that's about as much as an Ibex violin-maker's plane (the biggest one. I also use one of those for fine-tuning, mind you). Messier, but faster, surprisingly accurate, and far fewer (Read: no) blisters.

[j. pierce]

I used a small handplane and spokeshaves, as well as a bit of rasp and surform work to rough in the convex part of my carved tops, and then did the recarve pretty much entirely with one of these carving spoons. Worked real well, and the spoon was cheap enough, but I finally got my hands on an angle grinder and flap wheel sanding disk; as much as I enjoy working with the hand tools, it certainly was a quicker, more efficient method. (I'd probably end up doing a combination of both in the future - although apartment living has confined me to hand tools on occasion.)