Now I have a lump of wood that’s roughly nyckelharpa shaped, it’s time to start cutting bits off to get the shape closer to the final object. First I needed to mark out what would be needed, so I made a template.

Then the template was used to mark out the block:

I used a coping saw to cut out the curved bits:

Then a plain rip saw to cut off large chunks – it looks almost the right shape already!

There are still knots and holes visible, but they will be cut away in the next stage of shaping.