The Big Pick

My first task was to choose the wood.
All my wood is of the highest quality, carefully selected and dried according strict rules of violin making. The seasoning starts with the sawmill : The selected wood is spotted in summer but cut in the beginning of the winter when the sap is at the lowest. Then it is chopped straight away and stored outside for a year. Then it is brought into warehouses when it is available for sale. I buy mine at that stage and carefully season it for another 4 years at least in my workshop. No fast process in high standard violin making - we make the way it was made when people had time.
The wood I selected for Victoria's cello is a piece of spruce cut in 2004 in the Italian Alps above 3000 feet for the soundboard (also called front). The back is a bit of sycamore cut in Yorkshire in 2002 (I have made all my cellos with this wood for backs, I love it and this is my last bit !). The neck is of English maple cut in 2005 and the ribs are of Romanian maple cut in 2006. When I will come to make the fingerboard, I will use the best Madagascar ebony...

Here is the back pieces and the neck and on the side we can see the template which is used in this case to check the sizes.

On the picture bellow are the front and the ribs bits.