The purfling being made of a light wood veneer sandwiched between two dark or stained pieces of wood. The pieces are glued together and once dry are cut into thin strips, seen below being inspected by Jessica!
These thin strips of wood are inset about 4mm from the edge. Not only do they enhance and define the violin visually they also prevent knocks to the edges from developing into cracks. The purfling tramway lines are marked very lightly and then one carefully cuts along these lines to a depth of about 2mm. Once done one chisels out between the lines creating a neatly flowing channel.
The wood that I use for the purfling is made from Stinkwood an indigenous wood growing along the east coast of South Africa . These days it is rather difficult to find Stinkwood that is dark enough but I was very fortunate to obtain a lifetime supply from one of the original saw mills in the area ... they had a small pile of really old off cuts hidden in the corner of their previous warehouse where I located the wood.
I cut the miters of the purfling with a chisel and trial fit them to get the correct length. These points are slightly offset pointing more towards the inner C bout. This is done in order to give a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing look which one could compare to that of hanging a painting in the 'middle' of a wall which never quite looks 'right'.
Once fitted the pieces are glued in and gently hammered down. On drying the purfling is gouged slightly below the edge thickness and the violin's outline now comes to life!
As usual nice work and its always great to watch your videos. We want a DVD (an affordable one if you could) nice job with the knife.I like how you show the detail like carving the chanels
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