Oy.

After yesterday's long day of gluing in the binding and purfling, today we cleaned it all up. When you take the tape off, there's glue squeezeout all over the place and the edges of the binding and purfling stick up a bit from the surfaces that they are intended to be flush with.

The process of doing that is physically hard. You use this big file (called a double edged flat bastard file... really...and now I know why!!)... it is heavy and rough and raspy and you have to use it choked up and holding onto the raspy part... so it's hard on the hands. Takes substantial and prolonged effort to do it, so it's hard on arms, shoulders, back. I consider it a victory that I came away from about 4 hours of filing with only one blister. The rest of me aches, but is uninjured.

Once the top and back are flush, the sides can be done with the same file or with a scraper (or a combo). I liked the scraper MUCH better. It removed more material, more quickly, with less effort and made pretty little curls instead of dust. I used a combo, but more scraper, since by that time all the hours of filing made my muscles cry for some different motion.

This part is physically strenuous (at least for someone who has not yet developed the muscles or callouses) -- but also very gratifying. Over the course of the day, the body of the instrument goes from looking like an awful mess to a beautiful, sleek, detailed thing.