Carved from the one block

A crwth is not glued together. It is carved out of one solid piece — you start with a block and you remove everything that is not the instrument. I drill it first: a whole field of holes, each stopped at the depth I want, so the bottom of the hole becomes my gauge. Then it is the knife and the gouge, and days of it, working the waste away a little at a time. You go carefully near the centre — that is where the splits want to start, where the wood is most tender — and you learn that the hard way, on the first one. Slowly the box hollows, the walls come down to thickness, and a piece of Welsh sycamore begins to hold a sound.