I found a piece of maple in the wood bin at work. planed the side to see what I had, and sliced off two 1/2" wide pieces. I have enough left to get three more pieces. I sawed two strips to make three strips about 3-4 mm or so wide. That will be the height of the purfling. Then I started planing. I have no idea where the purple came from. Very strange.
It worked pretty good. The strips were are about .7 mm thick or so. I stopped for lunch. After lunch I read Michael Darnton's way he makes purling again, and noticed that he brushe the wood with hot water, and lets it set 20 seconds, and then planes it. I gave it a try, and it works great. Dry, it cut fine, but a little chatter; but that will just show up as handmade. The biggest difference is the curl. The first ones curled a lot, and with water they only have a gentle curl. I found a piece of wood to use as a brace to keep the bench from moving.
I kept planing over and over, and sawing the slots down when I got to where they disappeared. Next time I will saw them deeper, and stop sooner. When the wood is wet it is harder to saw; you end up with fiber, and it is harder to keep straight. If the groove was still 1/8" deep, it would be easier.
So now I have two piles: one to be the center whites, and one to get dyed black. I'll go through the whites to see if any are too thin. I need to get some chemicals to dye the blacks. Roger Hargrave uses ferrus sulfate, Pot. Hydroxide, and logwood chips. Darnton uses ferrus sulfate and tannic acid. Roger's method needs boiling, but appears to be a one shot deal. Darnton's method seems to be a repeat as necessary thing.
Does anyone have a preference? Have you tried either method?
When you put the wood in the vice was the wood grain on the quarter-standing up or was it flat sawn-horizontal? Either way will stick together with glue until you hit tight corners, then the flat sawn pieces. if any, will give way and more than likely break. It's better gouging with quarter sawn purfling pieces too. From reading about Mr. Darntons' violin making methods he uses the best way that presents the least amount of effort for the most return. Just my opinion, though. I believe the saw teeth just simply picked up what was on the surface of the maple and carried it on through the cutting process. It could be worse, it could of been an oil of sorts.
ReplyDeleteI asked Michael about how to orient the wood for purfling making, and he said that he doesn't even think about it. Good enough for me. This peice has checks, less than 1/2" that go on a diagonal to the cut. The only thing that I did was make sure I was planing downhill.
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