Outline and rough carving ...

An exciting part of violin making is placing the rib structure on the back and fronts and marking out the outline. This is done once they have been planed perfectly flat. One has to take into consideration the grain of the wood and decide where to place the instrument to maximize its beauty.

Once the rib structure is clamped along the centre joint I lightly mark around the ribs with a sharp scriber and then with a hard pencil using a brass spacer which was kindly given to me by my friend and fellow violin maker Patrick Jordan in Canada.

In fact some of my really good tools have been sent to me by Patrick including my prized Lie-Nielson plane that I used to trim the rib ends in the last video!

Once marked the outline is sawn out and one begins the rough carving developing a relationship with the wood and feeling its texture. I love to listen to the sound the gouge makes as it gently guides itself through the wood. One can tell an enormous amount about the future sound of the instrument through this listening, although I would never attempt to put it into words, as it is simply an abstract interpretation and the accumulation of years of experience.

After the rough carving the outline is neatly rasped to the pencil line, again ensuring the curves flow. Finally the edge thickness is gouged and filed down. One leaves the inner C bout edges slightly thicker to compensate for the optical illusion of them looking thinner.  The corners are also left thicker to allow for wear which happens naturally over the decades. 

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Outline and rough carving ... 

Bending the ribs ...

I am always fascinated by the structure of the violin and, despite its aesthetic beauty, its remarkable structural qualities. 

Not being familiar with the mathematics of structure and just using my layman’s intuition, I am amazed that violins have withstood the passage of time considering that the average thickness of the ribs (sides) is around 1.1 mm thick!

So whenever I am bending the sides on the hot bending iron I am in total wonderment at how delicate the pieces are, yet as a structure they can support so much tension. So I guess the old adage comes to mind that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Regarding the bending of the ribs. There are numerous methods in doing this. Some violinmakers bend the ribs precisely to a pencil line marked on a flat board of wood. Others use a full depth outside mould (the French system) and then there is the Italian way of using an inside mould about a third of the ribs height in thickness. This is what I use and owing to its nature adds a unique dimension to the violin of the inner c bout ribs being slightly concave and the top and bottom ribs slightly convex, thus naturally adding a unique character to each instrument.

On doing the bending I have developed a system of using the natural moisture and flexibility of the piece to fit snugly against the mould – not by bending the ribs to the exact shape but bending them ever so slightly and then pulling the rib around the mould.  Thus the curves have a natural tension in them as I mentioned in an earlier blog post. They tend to fit better around the mould and retain their flexibility without becoming too brittle from excessive heat bending.

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Bending the ribs ....

(Best viewed in HD at full screen)

Bending the linings ...

The linings are thin strips of wood 2 mm in thickness and 7.5 mm deep. They reinforce the ribs and add an extra gluing surface when finally gluing on the back and front. The wood I prefer to use is spruce although many violin makers use willow and Edi my one student used an old cricket bat!!  

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Bending the linings ...