Carving the Scroll

Carving the scroll can be a bit daunting at first, but it's really one of the more enjoyable (if somewhat time-consuming) parts of the building process for me.
I use the pin pricks I made earlier as a reference (you can play dot-to-dot with them to get the spiral if you really want to), and the penciled lines around the outside of the scroll keep me from sawing too deep. So first I saw down from the top, then I come in from the side to remove the first big chunk of wood.

It's really pretty straight-forward. The trick is not to go too deep with either of the cuts. It's also important to be aware of the angle of the cut. For the first cut, I angle outward away from the center a bit. That keeps me from immediately undercutting the tower of the scroll, creating an unsightly "flowerpot" effect. The next cut should be angled a little bit upward so that the edge of the scroll isn't scooped in. It should also follow the angle of the pencil line to minimize wood removal later on.
Here's what the cut looks like when it's been finished. But I don't like to start carving yet.

I'll go around the edge of the scroll, doing pretty much the same thing, though my cuts get smaller and smaller because there's less wood to be removed. Then I can come down from the top with a variety of differently-sized gouges and round off those corners. The goal is to turn the octagon into a circle.

Once that has been accomplished, I come in from the sides with the same set of gouges and scoop in towards the tower of the scroll. Throughout, I am attempting to create a smooth, clean-looking surface that will be attractive on the final instrument. I'll come in with scrapers later to clean up some of the mess. I actually have two that I shaped just for that purpose.

The trouble here is that I can really only go so far with the gouges before I need to revert to the saw. I take off more wood around the tower, then I'll come in with the gouges and repeat the process, using smaller and smaller gouges as I near the center. At the beginning of the process, I was using a 25mm wide gouge. By the time I get to the button in the center, I'm using a 5mm gouge. My entire set of gouges has a number five sweep.
Here's what the scroll looks like after I've gouged the whole thing out.
Here's what it looks like after I've come in and cleaned it up with scrapers.

After that process was completed, I get to do the other side. While it's merely a repetition of the last bit, the second side can be somewhat more difficult. This is because so much care must be taken to make it perfectly symmetrical to the first side, something that I don't feel I've managed to accomplish yet, to my satisfaction.Next I'll start hollowing the pegbox. This is an exciting time.