Andrew,
Thanks for your comment. The fret work: Since I was making potentially enough fretwork for 4 chests I bandsawed strips of mahogany to a heavy 1/6th, scraped them, then ganged them together and cut them out with a scrollsaw. Then each individual piercing was cleaned up with chisels, and finally the fretwork was applied to the case with hide glue. Are you thinking of building it? You should....CH