Month: December 2009

After developing a beautiful tan, it is time for “The Lyric” to get a bath. This is the aqueous phase of the ground preparation. The first step is to apply a coat of a 3% gelatin solution. I do this to seal the end-grain in order to prevent uneven absorption of the stain color. Next I apply a water based stain to the whole violin. This enhances the contrast between the winter and summer grain a gives the instrument a nice orange/cinnamon color. The result is:

I recently received a commission for a new violin. This thread will document the process of making “The David”.

The customer requested a new violin made to my Strad pattern. Together, we went through my wood supply and picked out the wood for the instrument. The spruce is Italian  and the maple is Bosnian. Both pieces are over 10 years old. The blocks are some very straight grained Sitka spruce that I found in Canada.

The first step is to trim the blocks to size and spot glue them to the form.

The next step is to draw the outline on the blocks.

Next, we have to plane and scrape the rib material down to a thickness of about 1.2 mm.

Finally, we then trim the blocks to accept c-bout ribs, bend the ribs to shape and glue them in place.

Now we trim the other blocks to accept the bent ribs.

Finally, the finished ribs.