For a small musical instrument I need a thin sheet of spruce (1.5mm). Normally I’d just buy a guitar or lute top, but for this one I need the highest quality I can get, with very narrow rings. So my idea is to saw down a blank for a violin top (25mm at its thickest point). I need to do this with as little waste as possible, because a good spruce top can cost 100-300€.
Is there a way I can do this with hand tools?
That is a very thin sheet. You won’t get sub-mm precision with hand tools, especially the way you’d have to cut.
You could look for high-end veneer, that could already match your thickness.
I don’t need to cut it to final thickness right away, since I have to graduate the thickness by hand anyway. Being in the ballpark of 3 or 4mm might be enough.
Edit: also, most veneers I found were plain-sawn, and I specifically need quarter-sawn.