Starting to Finish

Where we last left off...the violin looked like this. 3 pieces ...if you notice...there is the little black strips in the back. That's the purfling...it is 3 pieces of wood thinned down so much that when glued together they are only 1.2-1.3 mm wide total. You cut a channel all the way around the violin and inlay the purfling...the hardest part of this is that there is indeed a power tool that does the channels for you...but you can't cut the corners with it and have to do that by hand.



After the inlaying happens...this is what you get! (top)

Back:

Last night also marked the beginning of the journey to the end. The final archings...the metal template will perfectly match the curve of the whole entire plate when it's finished. For now...it's getting closer on the back. There's still some day light and gaps and they are pretty big ones. the little tiny thing holding up the metal template is a finger plane. That's what is mostly used to finish the plates and make them nice and soft looking and feeling and the right shape.



A view of the side. Where the shadow is is where the wood is removed to make it closer to fitting.

And next...hopefully I'll be able to show a further stage in finishing the back...then it's the same thing for the top...and after that is when things start to get nerve wracking (arching the inside and making the whole entire thing flexible and as thin as 3 mm or so.

Long Awaited Post

An overdue update from before the semester break...

This will turn into the neck of my violin...My instrument has kind of turned into an experimental one...the back is cut on the slab...and so we decided to do the neck on the slab as well. This is the most you'll see of it for now.

An upside down view of the margins being trued. This means that I have taken down the gaps between the ribs and the top to 3.5 mm. The corners are cut down and the top matches the back now.

Margins are matching and corners are mostly done

Another view

Here is another view of the whole thing put together. This is the last time the box will be "closed up" until it is permanently ready to be put together. The ribs are also slab cut. While this may be a very unstable instrument, it will be very pretty when finished.


Filing the margins down to match top and bottom.

Up next: The purfling is being put into to the top...