Carving the bridge comes near the end of the build, and is a pleasure–careful work with super sharp tools, but not as stressful as some of the other steps, and an opportunity to leave “fingerprints”…traces of the hand-building process.
I will leave the subtle facets created by the carving gouge here on the back of the tie block:
while the other surfaces will be comparatively sleek.
Pat Megowan Stringed Instruments 