There is reprinted, in the great 'House of Stathopoulo' history of Epiphone, a Socony publication describing operations at Epiphone, in around 1940. There is a photo of the duplicator carver, use to rough out tops and backs. But when I examine, or work on/repair one of these vintage Epis, it's obvious from the tool marks, that someone scraped and/or sanded the inside surface of the the top and back. So, I believe these parts were roughed out with machines, and then some amount of hand work was done, to bring them to final thickness and graduation. They were made in a small factory or workshop(25 give-or-take employees), and it was a mix of machine and hand work.
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