1000 miles, one step at a time
Another exciting morning in the shop. I woke up, put that Cadillac sharpening station to work, then had an espresso and got down to working on Golia. I cleaned up the corners with a file, and I am happy with all but one of them. Here are two nice ones:
Besides myself, the next audience this blog is intended for is someone who is more or less in my position: working on the first fiddle outside of a formal luthier violin school. You guys and gals should keep reading, the rest of you can skip on to the next post where I take Golia off the fixture (yay!).
This early morning building stuff might be just the ticket. I was up even earlier than normal today so I got some good work done in the shop.
Usually I play the fiddle for an hour or so first thing in the morning, but I am going to try using that time to get a little work done in the shop. More work in the evening often doesn’t sound good, but playing the fiddle almost always does.
Well heated anyway. This weekend was a rib bending extravaganza. I just realized that I bent 12 ribs sections and didn’t crack a single one. So yay me. On the other hand, my bending technique has a long way to go. Also, my steampunk bending iron has got to go. You can see it in this pic:
Maple, not pig.
Last night I cut ribs for the Maggini. I went ahead and sawed 10 from the stock (you need a total of 6 for a fiddle) as I bending can lead to some attrition I have learned. I sawed 3 or so, then then then I botched a bunch of them. I kept getting these odd wavy lines in the cut. So I switched to scrap wood and poof they were gone. Huh. Three (no kidding) iterations back and forth I figured out what it was: tension. When I was cutting the for-real stock, I was all “must get this right” and pressing too hard into the blade. I took a deep breath, relaxed, and sawed the rest just fine.
Got some work done last night.
Here’s the Maggini and the little guy both with blocks glued and ready for shaping.
I think it’s somewhat funny that I am making what are essentially the smallest and largest violins at the same time. You can read about Maggini in a quick little biography which is now open source and can be found here: Gio: Paolo Maggini, his life and work. Maggini was making fiddles when the instrument was still becoming what we know it as today — almost 100 years before Stradivari. His violins are noticeably longer than models built on Strad or Guarneri patterns. This gives them a more viola-like sound.
Here’s a pic before I took the clamps off.
Not much progress so far this week, though I might get in to glue these blocks up tonight. Ignore the neck and bottom blocks: I’ll be replacing those with some spruce ones. The corner blocks are willow.
I have a estate sale find fiddle that was missing a fingerboard. I’m prepping one for it, and I planned some on it last night. Ebony shavings are pretty with maple.
True story: I woke up in the middle of the night last night knowing that something was off in the photo of the fixture. This morning, I realized I’d left off holes for the top and bottom block clamps. Fortunately, this was a sin of omission rather than commission, so I set things right this morning.
