Recreating a Nunes ukulele bridge

Just a little work to report today.

I was lucky enough to find images of a Nunes uke on the internet a few months ago, including a shot that showed how the bridge was carved. I worked from the pictures and the uke at hand to measure out what the bridge should be like.

I sat down at the computer and resized the pictures until they seemed right, and measured them out with a ruler.

It's hard to see, but I sketched out what the curves should look like for where the string knots rest.

Ready for the cutting.

I clamped my bridge blank between two pieces of scrap wood so that I wouldn't blow out the grain, and so I would have something for the forstner bit to grab into.

I just worked my way around, eyeballing everything.

It is rough, but I intend to chisel it out.

After some chiseling, it is taking shape. I then took it to the belt sander to bring it to size.

Apparently, when I said "bring it to size", I meant "screw it up". Some days a guy just can't catch a break. I took way too much wood off.

 So, I went to the wood pile, selected a much nicer piece of koa wood, and redid the whole process. The result was much better, the grain on the koa is much nicer, and I think the whole process was worth it.

This time, I made some lines to sand to. That would have been a good idea the first time.

Eureka! It fits, it looks right, and it's ready for a saddle slot and string slots to be cut.

 I finished up my time puzzling over how to make the saddle slot. I figure that all these bridges just had the slot made on a table saw, so I ended up working to stabilize a sliding table for my table saw, since I'm going to need it anyways. I was pretty tired today, since I'm fighting a cold, so I decided not to actually mess with power tools. I can save that for another day.