Bigger is Better, or Easier

I'm working on a neck for my viola. I started one out of cherry, to match the back, and when I was using the chisel to punch out the pegbox, it split along the side. Better now than later I guess! So I started another out of big leaf maple. I was nervous about the flame, because it was deeper than most I've used, but it cuts really nice. One problem I had was my pattern didn't have the peg holes marked on it. When I marked the holes to drill them out (I drill them half way, from both sides) the paper must have moved, so I'll have to bush at least the A peg, and maybe the D as well on the bass side.

I gave up sawing with a coping saw around the form. It's a lot of work. Instead I took my thin, sharp Ryoba, and took straight cuts, close to the line, and whacked the stock off with a chisel. Piece of cake. Smooth it up with a rasp, and finish off with a loose plane blade, (my preferred scraper) and looks perfect.

I saw the heel to the angle that I figured out, and the length that I need. I don't like trying to trim off end grain; it's too hard a proposition. Then I saw the angle of the fingerboard from there to the first turn. The grain almost got me on the bass side, even the saw wanted to dig in, but my saw cut was wide enough. The pegbox on the inside doesn't look too gnarly on the treble side, but the bass side is running the wrong way, and it is rustic.

Here are my scroll tools, seen from the other side, and my unfinished viola neck with the botched holes.

I found a new technique for the scroll: watch your line. I know that's not a new technique, but it is amazing how well it works when you follow it. I also put the undercut in as I went around, instead of adding it later. It is much, much easier that way.

Another great idea is (especially if you are over 50) to wear the magnifying visor. Mine has an outer lens that is about 1.5X and then and inner one you can flip in (mine's almost always in place) that is probably makes it a 4X lens. It also has an extra loupe I don't use much, and lights on each side that I never use (it was bought before led's). I can't even begin to tell you how much better my work is when I can actually see it. Dah.

Ribs, 3 Ways

I get my ribstock off the backs. I have had a couple backs that came with a separate piece for ribs, but usually I saw them off the extra stock on the back. I don't know if that's what most people do. So I have 3 backs cut out, but I just started on the ribs. Here's what I have:






The first is the way I usually do it. The stock was thicker than needed, but not any wider, so a long rip cut left me with this. It isn't all smooth yet, and it looks like it will be "fun" to bend.






Then the one I started the other post of long rip cut. It was extra wide, 33mm or so extra wide so there was enough left over after roughing out the outline to get a set of ribs too... I think. It might be a tight squeeze, but there should be enough for a violin. I left the tabs on to clamp it while roughing some of the stock off.






This is the last one. I looked at the leftover from the last one I cut out. That one has the light/dark luminous wood. If I'm careful there is enough to make another violin! This one I'll flip the one side over so it is easier to carve. I won't be bookmatched, the thick area was on the outside, but it doesn't look bad, the wavyness seems to work. The light/dark still won't match, something about it just won't let it happen, but at least you can carve in the same direction on both sides. There was enough left at the big end to cut 2 chunks 33mm wide for ribs.

Drawing lesson

Danhux asked me how I got dimensions for my drawing of the Guadagnini violin. Well, I kinda, sorta, made them up, and kinda sorta scaled them off of photographs, and kinda sorta used ratios that are used to draw up outlines on all violins. Each maker may use different ratios, or different starting points. The fastest and best answer to Dan might be to buy a Stad Poster. That wouldn't be a bad idea, I might suggest The Titan (Titian) Strad and then you could follow the same arching I used on the one I made at the beginning of the blog. It will give all the measurements you need except the neck and fingerboard, those are just made standard. Many people will recommend that you just make the mold for the ribcage by tracing the outline of the back on a 1/2" piece of wood, and cutting it 3.5mm or so in from the line. This will allow for the overhang (2.5mm or so) and the 1mm thick ribs.

Yeah, that will work. But it wasn't the way they did it. And your outline might end up pretty whomped out. The Titan is a good poster, but it is not very symmetrical. There aren't many old violins that are. It's from the way they are constructed. The ribs are build on an inside frame, and when they are released from the frame they may not stay where they were. The outline was traced on to the back and belly using a washer to get the overhang, and then they were cut out. There could be quite a difference in shape. The frame, or mold was made fairly symmetrical, so the ribs started out symmetrical. Why not start out the same way?

Well I thought my mold for the Titian, (I thought it was Titan, Titan sounds better, who makes this stuff up?) was off. It was another mold for one I started a long time ago. The delGesu is OK too, it's a little different. But here's a lesson on how to draw up a P mold for a Titian Strad.





Draw a centerline, mark the center of it, and then mark it out 173.5mm from the center to make it 347 long. Mark it again at .8 and .6 of the length from the top. That will mark the lower bout and lower corner. Mark a point 4/7 of the lower corner for the upper corner. The point for the upper bout can be located where the distance between the bouts will be .618 of the total length. Yeah, you have to do some math for that. That gives you the lengths.

For the widths you can use 160/101/200. I only draw one half, so divide them in half. I used 78mm and 88mm for the upper and lower corners. For the arcs at the top and bottom I chose a point 5/8 up from the bottom. That point happens to be the apex of the triangle drawn between the f holes. A line 5/8 down from the top bisects the lower holes.

You can find radii to make the shape right, but you'll have to have the poster to make it to your liking. The poster also give every measurement you need to make it. Thicknesses, f hole measurements, arch height vertically and horizontally. It also has the ct scans of the arching and ribcage (thats where you want to check your drawing.

The one I just drew up is pretty close to my mold. The f hole at the bottom could be pushed out a mm or so further, but it's pretty close. It's closer than the one I made!

Long Rip Cut

Sometimes frugal can be a good thing. Sometimes it just makes for a lot of work. The back pieces I'm going to use for this one has less figure in it than the other two pieces I have, but I wanted to give the Big Leaf a try, and the other ones are going for something else. Each half was fairly thick, so I decided to slice them on an angle and pull some ribs off them. I've done it before, with varying degrees of success. It always worked. Sometimes it looked really nasty until it finally cleaned up, and it always took way longer than I expected.

This time was no different.

My initial problem was that my Ryoba is way, way, way, to dull. It seems like it never did have the proper heat treatment. It didn't have the nice blue edge on it. The saw I used to use, a single edge, Japanese Kataha Noko Giri, called a Z ripping saw that has been relegated to trimming trees a couple years ago, and is ready to be tossed. It worked pretty good, but I bought the replacement blade, thinking it fit the handle I had, but it didn't, so I made up a handle for it, that worked, but wasn't great. So I started with the Ryoba anyway.

I tried to set the kerf wider (that always seems to be the thing that goes on these blades first) with a hammer and a chunk of metal. The teeth bent and didn't break, another clue the heat treat wasn't right. Then I filed it sharp. I went around the outside, so it would cut square, insy and outsy bulges are the hallmark of some of my other cuts, and then started cutting. To say it didn't work would be generous.

I wanted a good sharp sharp Z ripping saw. Can only get them by mail. Even the closest Woodcraft store is over 40 miles away, and they have a limited line of Japanese saws (although I haven't been in one since they bought out Japan Woodworker). We went ot the local (still 15 miles away Lowes and I bought a cheap hand saw. It's not a rip saw, they didn't even sell such a thing, but has a combo blade sharpened to cut forwards and backwards. I don't know about that. It seemed to cut best going forward. At least the teeth were hard and sharp. In an hour I finished up the one I was hacking on, Two hours later the other was done.

The biggest problem with the saw is it's width. The Z ripping saw has a .03" kerf. The Stanley measures .072 over the teeth. With the bouncing it does, it cuts at least .09" wide. That's 3 times the amount of wood to cut. That's 3 times the effort. That's 3 times the time. At least. The new saw is 15" long instead of 10" which is the only plus it has. Cutting the back is the hardest thing to do. I could have left it alone, but then I'd have to get the stock off by carving, or planing. At least the cut is done.

Anyone out there with a rip saw recommendation? Sure a band saw would work, but any hand saws that really get the job done?

Inevitable

Inevitable. That's the only thing I can say. You hear stories about it. People who cut the button off on the back right from the get go. Makers who fit and glue the bass bar on the wrong side (at least that's easily fixable). Apprentices (sure, it's ALWAYS the apprentice) who, while using a drill press to mark a safe depth to hog out the inside, drill a hole, or several all the way through! I'm glad I can't do that. I do the inside first. But I got the brilliant idea, especially since now I have a drill press where I didn't before, to do the drill press idea on the outside. Set the drill about 5mm up from a raised stop, and mark a safe height to hog the od to. It works fantastic, bang, zoom, and you're done.

I must be an apprentice. The drill press is not an expensive one, you could call it cheap, but it isn't really too cheap, but the locking mechanism for the stop isn't as solid as say a Bridgeport mill, something I have a lot of experience on. (notice the hemming and hawing and blame fixing on an inanimate object) I whacked several holes through before I noticed. Luckily it was only on one side. Unluckily I have to make another side, rough it out to match, and glue them together.

I was going along pretty fast. Doing the inside doesn't take more than an hour or so. At this point I'm just roughing it in. I still need to finish it up when I cut the outside profile in. I just like to have it about 4-5mm thick everywhere when I mark the profile on. Then I can set the edge height, cut the purfling grooves and install the purfling. Then I'm on to finishing everything up, and tuning.

I had one more chunk of spruce under the bench. I always have more back wood than spruce. I'll have to buy a bunch when I settle on what I'm using. This Sitka I bought from Bruce Harvey, at Orcas Island Tonewoods http://www.radiofreeolga.com/tonewoods/ was thick enough I figured if I cut it just right, I could get 3 halves out of it. But have you ever tried to cut a belly, or worse a back of a viola blank "JUST RIGHT" with a hand saw? Never quite comes out JUST RIGHT. I had one option, split it. The other piece seemed to be perfectly split, with no runout in either direction, so I had my hopes up. It split perfectly, right where I wanted it to. The new side matches the other side quite nicely, and has the same cool cross lines (what are those called?) and a bit of bear claw in the upper bout. Splitting it again I should be able to carve a 21-22mm (it measures 46mm at the thick end) high viola out of it. That would be a high one.

I now have a chance to see (hear?) how the halves sound before gluing them together. By the end of the week I should have them ready to glue together. I have to start working on roughing out the back. I have some big leaf maple from Bruce, and I've never tried big leaf before. I heard it is hard to bend. Is that true?

Well at least now I have the "inevitable" out of my system. I don't need anymore of them, regardless of what the word means.

Scroll

I worked on the scroll. It just needs a little touching up, and the fluting around the outside. I'll do that before I varnish. Then I'll have fresh eyes.

You know what fresh eyes are, don't you? When you are doing something, and it goes along, it seems like it is done. But when you look at it later you see glaring things that need to be addressed. When I write posts for my other blog, I read them over when they get posted (I'm about 2 weeks up) to check for errors and broken links. I find them. Spell check may get most, but it doesn't check grammar, and just plain weird wording. So if you let it sit around and do something else, and then go back to it, the results should be better. Anyway, here it is as of today:

I took four hours to cut it out (the front radius was done), chop out the turns, and smooth it all up. Most of the time is in getting the lines to be smooth and even. The roughing and undercutting are the easy part. I finally figured out how to get the eye done so it looks right. At least I think it looks right.

I used 4 chisels, the two at the right mainly, and the kinfe to mark the eye out for the small chisel. The one with the short blade is from Japan Woodworker, and is actually a gouge, the inside is dished, and works really well. I might dish in the skinny one next to it. I use it for the last tight turn. The radius inside might help. I bought the two with the long tangs at a garage sale. The steel is easy to sharpen and gets quite sharp. I've found if the steel gets a wire edge easy it gets really sharp. These ones also stay that way longer. That's the kicker. They're a brand called Fuller. I think they're older than the Stanley I put a new handle on at the left. Someone beat on them pretty good over the ages.

I found that leaving the neck square works good. I could keep the saw square when cutting out the turns, and it worked good for cutting out the eye and keeping the turns fairly square. I know many scrolls aren't too square, but I like them square (this is the first one I've actually got right) and with deep undercutting. Without the undercutting they don't look finished to me.

No, I really need to get going

I haven't done much on the violin. I have everything planned out. I know exactly how I want it. I have the pegs halfway done, but kept breaking one fake ivory collar, and made two for the last violin. I think I'd rather do those things up in batches of 12 or more, do it production line and be done with it. So I have a fingerboard, minus the radius on the underside, the pegs, and the tailpiece roughed out. 2 hours for the pegs, and 2 for the fingerboard.

It's cold in the basement, and for some reason my fingers turn white and numb. So I don't like spending a lot of time down there. That's why I've been figuring. I do figuring real well. It's easy to figure. And the more you do it, the more you should be ready to know what you're doing. At least that's what I figure.

The other day I cut out my neck block. It wasn't perfectly set on the stock. I lined it up square with the medularies and sawed it out, and planed it square (well retangular) just like it says in the Johnson and Courtnall book. That took an hour to saw and half an hour to plane. I need a new sawblade. I like my little (model making saw they call it) ryoba that doesn't have the replaceable blade. It seems to be extremely sharp, and stays that way. The last replaceable one I have on now never did seem sharp, or hard. I'll pick the next one up right from the Woodcraft store so I can check for the blue edges. This one hardly has any (ah, quality control?).

Today I sawed, rasped and smoothed up the top cuts on the neck, the top of the pegbox and the front of the scroll. I read on maestronet that Melvin Goldsmith cuts the slot for the strings out before anything else (the mortice he called it). Melvin is one of the many well known (for good reason) luthiers on maestronet and I figured it was worth a try. He said, iirc, that he could finish one up in 15 minutes, and then go on to the rest. It took me 30 minutes. I put the holes back quite a ways. Michael Darnton, another maestronet guru, says he puts top hole back as far as he dares. I may have dared too much. I did get it relieved around the hole, and I can go deeper if need be, but putting the string in will be a bear. Reminds me of a photo of a Jaguar with the skinny hood, and the double overhead cam six jammed in every last square inch of space. Cool to look at, but maintanence? At least the plugs are on the top! I don't think it's too far back, where I might get it in the mail one day with a note from a shop saying, "You think it looks cool? You change the string hot shot."