Scroll is closer

I worked on the scroll for about an hour the other day, and spent about an hour digging out the pegbox today. Before I go much further I will check the hole locations and open the holes up some. After doing that I'll smooth the inside of the pegbox up. It isn't a spot that needs a great finish, but every time someone puts strings on it they will be looking in there so why not make it nice. I pushed the holes back quite a bit, hopefully I can still string it up!
It wasn't an ordeal to carve the scroll at all. I'm beginning to be more at ease at it. Nothing else on the violin is as complicated. Maybe turning the pegs. I still need to remember to watch the angle on the saw when I rough the turns out. And I also need to watch the line where the saw starts. Sometimes the pencil lines get blurry and my cuts get errant. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. The sharper tools are nice. The maple seems quite soft too, so it is really easy to carve. Maybe I'll have to make the back somewhat thicker than normal. The spruce seems quite stiff so it will be a thinner one.
I don't do worry or paranoia. I really don't understand it. I can't see wasting time thinking about some thing that may or may not happen, and that I can't stop anyway if it does. I have confidence that everything will work out. The first few scrolls I made were ordeals. Grain problems, tear out, saw cuts tilted, you name it, I did it. I still wasn't afraid of doing another. Can't say I was anxious to do another, but I didn't worry about it. Now that I've done a couple that worked out more or less the way I wanted I won't even think twice about doing another. But I better think about keeping the saw square, watching the line, reading the grain...

Great "new" honing stone

Anyone who has done any woodworking or carving, or cut metal on lathes or mills for that matter knows that sharp tools make all the difference in the world. A dull, or even slightly dull chisel will make carving difficult, or even tear out the wood. Using a dull carbide insert at work risks not holding sizes, not getting the required surface finish, having to take yet another "finish" cut. A sharp tool on the other hand is a true blessing. Makes your job a pleasure and is almost no effort at all. At that estate sale I mentioned before I bought a sharpening stone set, and a honing stone with a black and a red side. The set works nice, cuts quickly and gets tools quite sharp. The honing stone is the real secret. That stone puts a mirror finish on the tools and they really work well. I didn't know what kind of stone it was so I asked on maestronet.com and within seconds (literally) Joe Robson of violinvarnish.com replied and said I have a straight razor hone. Sure enough I goggled that and found a "vintage" Pike razor hone in a wooden box on EBay for $13. I paid 25 cents without the box. It works great. I think the black side is a little coarser than the red side, but they are both very smooth. Looking at straight razor sites on line (yes they are there) I've found that stropping after honing with the stone is required. Yikes! The blades need to be even sharper! Now I need to get some strops and some paste. If I think they are sharp now what should they really be like?
I guess it is just like when we learn something new, or maybe think we know everything (never you say?)and we feel so smug and proud of ourselves. Then we find that we aren't really all that smart, we make mistakes, we don't know half of what we think we do. I love the quote from a character made up by Dave Wagner on a long gone local radio station by the name of Mr. Music. "Remember, I know more about music, high arts and cultural stuff than you'll ever forget." Indeed. Well, now I'm on a quest for a sharper edge. Anyone have experience with strops?

I have the first turn of the scroll almost done. I saw the sides of the neck out and chisel out the pegbox and scroll after marking it to depth with a saw. This is the first time I used a flat chisel. Usually I use a 3/4" wide Flexcut gouge that I think was labeled as a #3, but it seems flatter than that. It is a palm tool, but I never hold in like that. Once I smooth this turn up more I'll cut around the rest of it to the eye. This is the part that it would be nice to have a nice scroll sitting right on the bench next to you. I never know where to cut the turns down to. You can't say Xmm up from the first turn, because that would depend on how much you undercut it, and what if you undercut it more later? Some of the posters will give dimensions to the top and the bottom of the second turn. Then you have to work off the eye because it is the only flat dimension there. This maple is very easy to carve. Easier than the sycamore I did the last one with, that had nasty grain switches. Even where the flame is heavy it cuts nice, and using the chisel like a scraper works like a charm with no tear out. Maybe I'm just getting the tools sharper? I did cheat and used the drill press at work to rough out the peg holes to 3/16" diameter. Usually I use a hand drill with the bevel gears and a small hand chuck. Sometimes my eyes get the holes straight and sometimes they don't! I only trust myself with a 1/8" drill by hand, and then open them up as needed to make them straight.

A little song

Sunday, besides being Fathers day, was my birthday. In the morning before I did anything else, I finished up writing down a little song. A little gift to myself, and the Father of all fathers. The word part is easy, they just come to you. Just write it down before you forget. It's the music part that is a lot of work. Don't know why it is in 3/8 time. I don't remember ever playing anything in 3/8 time, but that's what it came out as. The other song I wrote was in 6/8, who knows maybe this one is too! I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure it is in three!
I'm putting it up here just in case someone might actually like it, or play it, use it at Church. It's better than just sitting in my computer and in my head. As in everything else here your comments or suggestions are welcome. If you want to record it, give me the credit. I picture it as being sung by Jars of Clay. Especially the part at the end marked slower (don't know what you call that part that is kinda added on) where I changed the notes to be higher, just like they would sing it. They write their own songs, so it will never happen. My first one I imagine Point of Grace singing it. I wrote the music with Anvil, a free software, but it doesn't print. Then wrote the music out to be printed on an evaluation copy of Noteworthy Composer. It can't be saved on that software. Anyone out there to suggest some software they really like? Neither one of them make it easy to just click on a note and change the length of it. Moving it up or down isn't too bad.
I did do some more work on the scroll. But, there isn't much time tonight to work on it so I'll talk about it the next post.

Inside of the belly scraped to size

I went to work this morning and the power was out. I couldn't be happier. Friday was stressful, and I really didn't feel like going in on Saturday. We went to garage sales and grocery shopping instead. I don't grocery shop. I look at (read) Christian books while my wife does. Kinda like a library. I have bought books...at the library book sale. There are some nice ones: You were made for this, Crazy love, One in a Million (the one I was just looking at), The story of Matthew, Love Revolution and more. Some stores have cut back, my wife says it's to stop me from reading them for free.
Anyway, back to violins. Between last night, and a little this afternoon, I scraped my belly to size. I use a really hard plane blade from an old, rusty shoulder plane. I don't know what kind of steel it is, but it is very good steel. Does the entire inside profile. As I said before the long arch is a catenary curve from the corner at the flat of the end to the corner at the opposite end on a diagonal. The cross arches, catenary curves as well, go from the lines I drew up and blend to the two diagonal curves. The resulting long arch is shown here. All that complex shape is done with just a chain and a scraper. The arch looks about right. Well, gotta go cut the grass and wash the car now.

Finally, a little progress

Sunday I squeezed in a half hour of violin stuff. I sawed out my neck. Tonight before dinner I took another half hour and filed it up some. Now I'm ready to start marking up a center line and get going on the scroll.

The scroll used to be my least favorite part of violin making. Seemed so senseless.
A part of the violin that gives little or no input to the sound, but gets a irrational amount of scrutiny from other violin makers. I thought it was something where the maker could express his originality. Wrong. I thought it was something that you could do yours a little different and people would say "I know who did that violin". Well yeah, but in a condescending tone. You don't really want to go there. The scroll isn't anything like that. It is a mark of achievement. It is something that shows that you have an eye, and your hands do what you want them to do. Even more so than the violin body itself. Only the old masters can get away with a so so scroll. "Sure it is lopsided, but his dad did it blind in one eye, and with one foot in the grave". "His gouge slipped a little on the treble side..." "The scroll looks like it was rushed, but money was tight..."
Now I'm at the point where I try to do as good on the scroll as I can. I know that I won't get it perfect. But that's what I aim for. I've seen photos of really nice looking ones. Some by fairly new makers that are amazing. Once you figure out what tools work, and which ones don't it is just a matter of not getting a chunk pop out from carving on the wrong side of the flame, and trying to get it even on both sides. And having the lines so they flow evenly, and fluting that is not too deep and not too shallow. And...well you get the picture.

Hurray, don't have to work tomorrow!

I have tomorrow off. First day off since Memorial Day. I haven't been this busy at work in at least ten years. I have the neck blank for the violin ready to saw, but haven't had time. I need to thin the back and belly down a lot too. As busy as I've been, it hasn't seemed hectic or anything. Just no time for myself. Still have to do the everyday things...shopping, cut the grass, stuff like that. We went to an awards ceremony for out youngest daughter who is graduating tomorrow. That killed a whole evening from 6-9, but it was nice. It is good to see the kids getting money for college, and some do put a lot of time and effort above and beyond what is required. I also noticed that a couple kids had broken legs, one had a mask on (has leukemia), one her mother just died a week ago. I'm sure others have trials and agony's no one even knows about. Makes you feel grateful for the blessings you've been given. Being able to go to work is a blessing, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes.
My wife and I were sitting on the deck after dinner and we noticed how the trees around the house have really grown tremendously. It seems like they grow very slowly, then all of a sudden they shoot up. A cottonwood way in the back was always the same height as the other trees around it. Now it is 30 feet higher. Maybe they get down to a underground spring, and the constant water spurs their growth. It's the same thing with people. You can go along with your life and not grow much. But if you reach for the spring of life, Jesus, you can experience a spurt of growth. You may not have as much time for the stuff you wanted to do, but it won't matter.

Busy at work

Been making a lot of chips lately. Metal chips, not wooden ones. After months of being unemployed, with hardly any prospects, I've found a job where I'm in demand. Maybe too much in demand. They had a bunch of work when I started a month ago, and now they have an opportunity for a big job that could get even bigger. I find myself as a key player. Never really been there before. They are all really excited. It's been a long drought for them I think. It's been a long drought for the whole State of Michigan. I had faith that I would find a job, and that things would work out. But I never imagined 63 hour work weeks! I worked 55 hour weeks for years, but it's been about a decade since then, and I've grown to enjoy 40 hour weeks, especially the time at home. I'm hoping once this job gets going and things settle down a bit I'll at least have my weekends back. My wife and I really enjoy going out on Saturday morning. It's our little getaway. Would like to go away for a weekend sometime this summer. We went away twice last summer for a couple of days each, but one of the weekends the weather was miserable. I'll have to squeeze violin making into short stints in the basement after dinner. Maybe this will teach me how to work faster and more efficiently.
The picture is just to remind me there is a rainbow after the storm. It was taken from our deck a couple years ago. This busy time won't last forever. It won't be hectic for weeks. Anytime things get stressful you have to remember you will get through it. I worked 8 hours today, came home and cut the grass, took a shower, and was done the same time I normally get home during the week. And I listened to 1.5 hours of music on my mp3 player while getting some exercise. Not bad. Now I need to grab a saw or a gouge.