Refining the Outline and Arching of the Back Plate

With the purfling now installed, the outline of the back plate is reduced to the actual worn outline of the original instrument using a template that is screwed to the plate using the small holes on the upper and lower bouts (this allows for consistent placement between the purfling outline template and the worn outline template). Now that the final outline in place, the uneven distances between the purfling and the edge on the original instrument appear on my copy (see the comparison photo below), and I refine the arching of the back plate using finger planes and scrapers:

A photo of the original instrument's back plate next to mine: