It is with a little sadness, and a slight sense of failure, that I have to report this will be the last Underhill Craft and Customs blog post, for a while at least.
After two and half years, a bit of contracting, lots of holidays and a couple of lockdowns, the time (need) has come for me to get a proper job again. The dream of being a self-employed crafter still remains, but, despite building a lot of cool stuff I just haven't been able to find the niche of "easy to make and sell" whilst still being profitable.
I'll still be making bits and bobs for friends and family and will do requests for simple CNC signs, keyrings etc but the more involved one-offs will have to wait for a bit.
I'll still keep progressing the ukuleles in my own time, but that will be significantly reduced for the foreseeable.
I have a few committed projects to finish off so I'll be working on those over the next few weeks.
I've also started work on ukes 5 and 6 (yes I am aware that 1-3 are still sat waiting for their respective next steps).
Number 5 is the Sapele block that I split in half,
I had intended to put the Bubinga top (below the figure is so crazy it's hard to get a focussed shot) I bought from eBay on it,
but I decided to use a bit of the Koa I had from Pete Howlett a while back, which I think will make a really rather pretty uke.
The body is thinner than the previous one and I went further with the weight reduction so this one is feeling even lighter than the previous versions.
It's about 4mm thinner than number 4. I haven't gone much further as I'm dithering on how much round-over to give the edge. I think the profile used on number 4 will result in this feeling too thin so I'm looking for a smaller round-over bit.
Number 6 will be a hollow-bodied acoustic, with the top cut from the same block, the body cavity machined out. The top will be thinned and braced then replaced giving the look of a single block or that's the plan at least! Block glueing up below.
And finally, I put together a brief sound sample, I'm still not happy with the strings or the setup but it certainly plays and can make some noise. Whilst I love playing ukes, I'm a terrible performer particularly when it comes to recording so this isn't the best demo out there.
That's all for now, I'm off to join the real world for a bit.
On reflection, this probably won't be the last post, but you get the gist!
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