Lord Wilton - Top Plate Graduation and FF Holes

I have just about completed graduating the top plate and refining the f-holes on my Lord Wilton model -- just some final adjustments and cleanup to go:

Lord Wilton - Rough Cutting the FF-Holes

Before graduating the top plate, the ff-holes must be marked and cut.  To do so, the center of the top is roughly thicknessed -- in this case to about 5mm thick (unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so these somewhat low quality photos are from my iPhone):

 

Then, the f-holes are measured and marked out in pencil on the top -- here, my f-holes are inspired by the original Lord Wilton, which has a slightly smaller f-hole on the treble side:

To cutout the f-holes, the eyes are cut first with a circle cutter:

Then, a handsaw is used to roughly saw out the rest of the f-hole, staying well inside the marked line for later cleanup and refinement after the top has been graduated, which is the next step:

Lord Wilton - Graduating the Back Plate

To graduate the back plate, guide holes are drilled to specific depths in different areas of the inside of the plate that show how much wood should be removed in each area -- basically, when you reach the bottom of the guide hole, you have reached the desired thickness of the plate.  I am leaving this plate quite thick, at least in the first instance, to allow for further adjustment.

Here is inside and outside of the graduated back plate -- only final adjustments remain:

The next steps are to graduate the top plate and cut the ff-holes.