Answer:
He carved it of rough-hewn bed slats with a penknife traded for Red Cross rations.
Each was about four inches wide, three-quarters of an inch thick and 30 inches long.
I cut the beech bed slats to the length of a violin body and glued them together.
A sharp piece of broken glass came in handy for carving.
Other men watched with interest, and some helped scrape glue from chairs for me.
I shaped the curved sides of the body by bending water-soaked thin wood and heating it over the stove.
Explanation:
