I mentioned that the wood quality is almost always great. This piece had a knot hole on the side. I didn't expect it to go very deep into the wood...
But lo and behold when I cut the scrap off...
Dang. Oh well. If this was going to be a transparent finish, it wasn't anymore.
But I had planned for a solid color all along, and this wasn't a defect that is going to affect the integrity of the piece at all. It looks worse than it actually is. It's really just a discolored spot.
So we carry on...
That scrap gets cut away on the bandsaw, then the body perimeter gets sanded...all the bumps and divots and whatnot that you can see in the photo need to be gone. 80 grit, then 120 to smooth it out. Then it goes to the router table to get the rounded over radius edge.
The roundover bit can't deal with the contoured parts - the tummy cut and elbow cut, so those bits get rounded by hand with rasps, files, and then sanded smooth.
Once the radius is all complete, it's time for more sanding all over. 120 grit, then 150, then 180, then 220.