Harp Repair, Continued

April 13 Clamps off, time for clean up. I made the patches a little bit thicker than the depth of the cavity so I can plane, sand, scrape it down to the same thickness.

So first take out as much as I dare with the plane. It's small, but effective.


I had some really aggressive sandpaper, too that flattened things out pretty quickly. Then on to the card scraper, which you can see resting on the top of the pillar. This tool is one of my favorites for finishing work. It cuts rather than grinds and when it is sharp leaves a surface smooth as glass with no scratches.


Luckily I still had some finish left from when I made the harp four (?) years ago. You can see that the new wood is quite a bit lighter than the old. We'll need more coats.


Later in the day, three coats with light sanding between each.

It looks pretty good! I'll let it harden up tonight and until noon or so tomorrow before I rub it out. If it is too soft even then I'll have to reassemble the harp and rub it down later. I have to get this thing put back together, strung up and back to Mary Saturday.