The three center staves of the viol are bent.  They've been sitting clamped in place for about a week and the bend is nice and stable now, so its time to joint the edges and glue them together.

The gaps are a result of the center of the two side staves being bent upwards on one side.  To bring the edges together I need to joint the outer staves.  However, if I just joint along the entire length the grain lines will be cut at a kind of angle that will make the glue joint too obvious.  The solution is to shape the staves into a long taper, jointing the inner edge at the top of the instrument.  This allows the grain lines at the outer staves at the lower bout to remain parallel to the grain lines of the center stave.  To further disguise the glue joint, the center stave is slightly tapered bringing the glue joint in under the fingerboard.

I made up a box which holds a hand plane upside down like a kind of jointer, but I found this awkward to use.  I found that clamping my staves slightly elevated and running my plane sides ways was much easier to work and get good joints.  I used fish glue for the glue up as it has all of the advantages of hot hide glue but with greater working time and ease.