A rose is a rose

The rose is held in place underneath the soundboard with strips of cloth soaked in hide glue.



Once the glue dries, the rose is firmly in place, and from the top looks like this:




As the only decorative element present so far, the rose looks alone and out of place, but once the rest of the decorations are there it will look much more at home.

Off the rails

With the bass hitchpin rail successfully installed, I went ahead and glued in the other rails, starting with the most difficult one, the bentside hitchpin rail. This rail will anchor nearly all the 8-ft. strings, and it needs to have a solid connection both with the soundboard and the bentside, so I clamped it in both directions, like so:



Fortunately, the steam-bending I described earlier was successful, so the bentside rail went in without a problem. Afterwards I glued in the easier spine rail:



And last but not least, the cheek molding:



Once all the masking tape was off and all the excess glue laboriously cleaned up, the rails were finished.



Next I sanded and shellacked the soundboard, cleaned up any last traces of glue around the bridges, sanded again, and shellacked again.



Next I'll install the rose, then mark out and drill all the holes for the hitchpins and bridge pins.

Anchoring the bass

The bass hitchpin rail is a small but very important piece; once the instrument is strung, the bass rail will hold the bass strings and be under tremendous strain, so getting a good join with the case is crucial. So first I put it in place dry and masked off the surrounding areas, to minimize glue cleanup:



Then I glued it in and clamped the hell out of it, to make sure to get the best possible attachment both vertically and horizontally.

Bent

This odd-looking object is a wood steamer. A harpsichord contains several pieces of wood which have to be bent at fairly extreme angles, and you've got a much better chance of installing those pieces without breaking them if you first soak the piece in water overnight, then cook it in a steamer like this one for an hour or so, and then clamp it in the desired shape for a few days. The piece I was working on in these pictures is the hitchpin rail, which hugs the bentside of the instrument and anchors the 8-foot choir. After it came out of the steamer I clamped it like so:



In a few days it'll be ready to glue in the case.

Gilding St. Luke

Many small tasks accomplished in the last week, including some more work on the new rose. The rose features an angel playing a harp, the traditional symbol of the Guild of St. Luke, to which many artists and craftsmen (including harpsichord builders) belonged in 17th-century Europe. First I checked to make sure it would fit correctly in the soundboard:



Then I took it out and applied a coat of shellac, then on top of that a coat of gold size, a sticky, resin-like substance which the gold leaf sticks to very neatly. Then I gilded it with gold leaf, like so:



The photo flash makes it look a bit more garish than it actually is.

A few days ago I glued on the wrestplank veneer, which is made of the same wood as the soundboard, using the usual go-bar method:



Once the veneer was in place, I drilled the holes for the tuning pins and glued down the 8-foot nut and the 4-foot nut.



Next up will be the installation of the hitchpin rails and case liners.