First: there is no agreed on 'right' way to cut a bridge, although most violin makers and repair people will tell you that _their_ way is, in fact, the _only_ right way to do it, and that any other way is terrible. That said, that's a pretty bad looking bridge by any standards....
Here's a few things about my 'right' (or 'wrong', depending on who you talk to) way of doing it.
1) Fit the feet. I was taught to make the feet low: that is, to remove as much wood as possible from the under side of the feet, rather than the top. The ends should be no more than 1mm high. How much you can take off the bottom of the feet will depend on the shape of the fiddle top. If it's really curved in the center then you will have to remove more wood from the inside, and the outside end of the feet will be thicker than 1mm when you get the inside right, so you will have to trim the outside down a little on the top.
You can use sandpaper initially, but I like to finish up with carbon paper and a scraper or knife. Some old timers used to scrape the varnish off the top where the bridge sits, which over time gives a a 'nice' dipin the top that is darn near impossible to fit any other way. You got lucky.
2) Trim the curve of the top to the correct shape and height to give the action you want. As with everything else, this is a matter of opinion, but I usually have the low G string about 5mm off the end of the fingerboard, and the E more like 3.5, iirc. I confess it's one of those numbers I look up when I need it, and I don't have it on hand right now.
3) Thickness the bridge. Make sure the back side is flat. It will nornally be at a right angle to the top or close to it. The bridge thickness at the feet should be about 3.5mm, and it tapers up to 1.5 to 1.7mm at the top edge. I make the front of the bridge (the part facing the fingerboard) in a 'clamshell' shape, so that the top edge has a uniform thickness. With a bridge in this style the back side of the feet will be on the line drawn from one inside F-hole nick to the other. That's what the nicks are for.
I do this thicknessing with a sharp block plane, holding the bridge in a quicky holder. Lay the bridge down on a piece of scrap soft wood on it's back. Scribe along both sides of the bridge, marking the taper on the block. Make a saw cut on the scribe lines, and remove the waste wood in between to make a flat platform that is about 3mm below the surface of the block at the 'feet' (narrow) end of the taper, and rises up to the surface at the 'top' (wide) end. Make sure the bottom of the taper is flat! Stick the bridge in, back side down, and push it down toward the feet so that it is wedged in place. Now you can plane, file, or sand the upper (front) surface, so long as you don't plane, etc., from the feet toward the top.
4) Trim the bridge to shape. This is somewhat a matter of style, but it also effects the sound. I like to trim a little bit of wood out on the underside of the 'legs', so that the curve there more or less matches the arch of the top. Round off the upper edge, as you did, and make _very small_ notches where the strings go. These should only be deep enough to hold the sttrings in place, but not as deep as the diameter of the string. These are normally filed, and then lubricated with a touch of graphite from a pencil. Other than that there are a lot of styles of cutting a bridge, and I can't go into it all now. A well cut bridge has a certain elegance to it, and you'd be surprised at how light some of them are.
All of this work calls for _sharp_ tools, and a light touch.
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Thank you all for your kind replies. I'll try to tinker on this a while longer. Fortunately, we're in no hurry. I've had it for a year trying to work up the nerve to do this, and the girl who it will go back to is now eight years old, so it will be a while before she'll grow into it. ![[headinwall]](./images/smilies/headbangwalluf8.gif "Mad")
plus the WAS relief