I approached this phase of the build with some trepidation. The neck is really the most important component on any stringed instrument because it not only must fit the body perfectly, but the length is critical for proper intonation, the angle of the neck is crucial for a good action, and the angle of the peghead must be correct so that the strings are held against the nut with the proper force. Then there is that "feel" to the neck that makes the whole instrument work for you or not. If it is not shaped just right, it's like driving a car with the seat set for someone else: it just doesn't work. So with all of those imperatives looking over my shoulder, I began.
First, I made a jig for my table
saw that would hold my neck blank securely while making the critical
neck/peghead scarf joint. I got the idea from Kathy Matsushita,
who has a wonderful amateur luthier's web site: {http://pweb.jps.net/~kmatsu/
} She, in turn, got the idea from another luthier on the web.
Isn't the internet great? Kathy has built a concert ukulele of
her own, and it's a beauty. Check it out.
This jig rides in the saw's miter slot and holds your neck blank at a precise 15 degree angle. I splurged and bought a good 40-tooth, thin-kerfed, coated blade at my local Woodcraft outlet. I then made a number of practice cuts on scrap wood to determine the optimum entry point for the blade into the wood so as to hit my pencil mark perfectly. With mahogany at a premium these days, I didn't want to make my cut until I was certain that I was doing it correctly.
The result was near-perfect! I got an extremely clean cut right along my line, and when measured with my protractor, the angle was exactly 15 degrees. Whew!
Ordinarily, it is then necessary
to stack these two pieces, forming a continuous ramp, and then
plane them perfectly flat and smooth before joining them. Believe
it or not, I did not have to do this step at all. The cut was
that good! So, on to the glue-up.
It is first necessary to thin the peaghead to 1/2" to
accomodate the tuners. I drew a line on the wood to indicate this
depth and made a simple jig 
to hold
the piece steady for reducing the thickness with my Wagner Safe-T-Planer.
This wonderful device is driven by a drill press and makes amazingly
smooth cuts almost effortlessly at a fraction of the cost of a
planer or joiner.
Here you can see the results of the planer. This tool is available from Woodcraft for about $40, and it comes with a sharpener for the three cutters. One must keep a firm grip on the piece while planing, but the design of the tool prevents it from slinging your piece off the table. It does, however, sling shavings everywhere! It can also be used to thin tops,backs and sides as well as fingerboards.
I was able to thin the peghead
to 1/2" in three passes, and the wood needed only minor touching
-up with a scaper before proceeding to the glue-up.
By flipping the cut-off
piece
over, and gluing it to the underside of the neck, you form a 15
degree angle for the peghead. Remember to leave the cut, angled
face of the neck blank facing upward and exposed, with the peghead
cut face glued to the underside. Because of the angle, and the
slipperiness of the glue (I use Tite-Bond), it is necessary to
use stop-blocks at either end to prevent the joined faces from
sliding away from each other. Here you can see that I first clamped
the pieces together, and then used an additional clamp to hold
the pieces down.
With the glue-up accomplished, I then glued the "ears" to each side of the peghead. These allow a larger area for your customized peghead shape.
I drew out the shape that I'd decided on, made a template, and transfered the shape to the back side of the piece. I then used the bandsaw to rough-out the shape, leaving about 1/8" all around.
It was then time to improvise a way to fine-tune the shape of my peghead, and for this I decided to adapt my ancient hand beltsander. I clamped it in a vise and rigged my shopvac to draw away as much of the dust as I could.
Using an 80-grit belt, I carefully 
sanded
down to the line all around, checking frequently for symmetry.
I used the roller end of the belt to shape the "stem"
of the peghead. Next time, I will use a 120-grit belt, as the
coarser grit takes a lot of wood away very quickly and before
you know it, you've "crossed the line."
When I was satisfied with my final shape, It was time to glue on the heel blocks.
I stacked the blocks with the grain running parallel to the neck and glued them with Tite-Bond. When laminating pieces together, be sure to coat all surfaces with a thin layer of glue and clamp in several directions. A well-glued heel will show almost no seam when finished.
When the glue has dried thoroughly (at least an hour), mark off your heel shape. Like the peghead shape, the heel is the "signature" of each luthier. I took the basic shape from my favorite Fender parlor guitar, but will modify its final form through sanding.
I cut the heel profile with the
bandsaw, and reduced the thickness of the neck at the same time.
as always, I cut outside of my line and will fine-tune the shape
on the sander.
The volute is another area where an individual touch is called for. Most ukes don't seem to feature anything special here, but I have always liked the way it can be used as a "stop" for the thumb when chording high on the neck, so again. I used my little Fender as a guide and worked from there. I drew a half circle at the point where the peghead angles away from the neck and carved a ramp from there toward the neck. I touched it up with sandpaper and a small rasp. The result looks nice and gives the neck an elegant touch,
Cutting the "ramp" of the heel is a task that couldn't be accomplished with the band saw, because of the interference of the neck with the guides of the blade. Once again, I turned to Cumpiano's example and used a chisel.
Working carefully, I began shaving
thin slices from the heel. Cumpiano worked straight across the
grain, working from each end so as to avoid tear-out at the heel
end. Perhaps my chisel wasn't sharp enough, but I found that I
got much better results by shaving at a 45 degree angle to the
grain in either direction. This is very tactile, satisfying work.
You get to know the character of the wood, and there is a sense
of old-world craftsmanship as the nearly transparent shavings
pile up at your feet. I found myself transported to Austria where
young Christian Fredrick Martin apprenticed to Johann Staufer
and carved his first heel...
After chiseling both ramps to very near my line, I finished the ramps on the belt sander, giving each a slight concave profile. While there, I went ahead and took off the remaining material on each side of the neck. bringing it to the approximate width of the fingerboard that will soon occupy it's top side
Final shaping of the heel was done
with a course rasp, followed by a half- round mill file and finally,
course and then fine sandpaper. this is an important aesthetic
element, so take your time and strive for symetry and elegance.
I will wait until that fingerboard is profiled, thinned, radiused, fretted and glued to the neck before I give the neck it's final shape. Here is the neck as it awaits completion.
