Preparing the ribs

I have four blanks for the ribs. They are very similar but two have a pretty long knot on the side. Luckily the shorter piece is still long enough for me to get the shortest ribs for the c bouts. I marked the pieces so that I can easily identify which faces have been together. This allows me to then make the grain flow smoothly from the lower bout onto the c bout.

The ribs are now ~2.2 mm thick. I will reduce them down to 1.5 mm. I start with a plane and joint one edge and continue with one face. I take very little on the first face with the plane and smooth it with a sharp scraper. Once one face is good, I will remove the rest of the extra material from the other face. Again first with the plane because I find it easier and I think I can better get a uniform thickness with the plane. It does however tear the grain a little so I need to finish the ribs with the scraper.