Hello Din, Richard,, Timothy and Jon,
thank you all very much for your help everyone, I'm quite overwhelmed. The internet is really quite something, and the goodness of peoples hearts even more. It's actually quite a relief to realize that I have been approaching things incorrectly, and your advice has given me the confidence to have a go. First I'll try to get some good blades, then I can practice on my piece of picea, it's now much too thick, nearly 4 mm, I didn't plane it down yet because my plane was damaged (lending it out) and is being repaired. The wood has some knots, which is why I got it very cheap, it's only worthy for practice. Once I get the technique down, I'll buy a proper piece. Sometimes it's confusing here in Holland, I'm originally English myself, but names of wood and tools are not always clearly translated, or even translatable. Swiss pine, which David van Edwards recommends, is called Fichte here, but the Fichte I've seen here (at the specialist lumber yard) looks kind of different to what I see in the photos of completed instruments. I have to add that I'm also wrestling with a lack of knowledge of wood in general. May be it's a good idea (as one of you suggested) to buy a board via the internet from someone specializing in wood for lutes and instruments. Any way, thanks all again for you help, I'm most impressed and very grateful, bye for now, Laurence Hall Amsterdam -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
