Next I cleaned up the back and rounded the underside of the edges before gluing to the ribs using my homemade violin clamps.
Gluing the back to the ribs with the form still in
Taking out the mold
Once dry i then broke the glue joints holding the blocks to the mold by tapping firmly with a hammer and then carefully pulled the mold out.
Fitting the linings
Once the mold had been removed I fitted the linings to the front side just like for the back and then trimmed them to a nice chamfer with a sharp knife.
Carving the blocks
I used a gouge to trim up the blocks taking as much as possible off without weakening the instrument.
Then a final clean up to get rid of any glue traces before gluing in the label.
Back and sides with label fitted ready for the belly
Fitting the saddle
I carefully marked the position of the saddle on the top with a scalpel and then deepened the cuts to complete the cutout for the saddle making sure the fit was not too tight.
Belly ready to be glued to the rest of the box
Gluing on the belly
Closing the box
I then carefully filed the inside of the edge curve on the belly and after making a few marks to line things up properly I glued the top on cleaning up any squeeze out with a hot water soaked rag.
Having managed to get to the initial graduations I am finally able to start the plate tuning.
First I took stock by weighing the plates and measuring mode frequencies.
Equipment
I used the same setup I used for the cello:
Android tablet to generate the signal tone
20W class D amp
4″ driver unit (used an 8″ on the cello)
Tea-bag for tea leaves
Starting point with initial graduations
The top weighed in at 88g and had perfectly matched x-mode and ring mode (an octave apart) but still a bit high as expected at this stage.
Top x-mode @ 202Hz with initial graduations
Top ring mode @ 404Hz with initial graduations
The back weighed in at 119g and is still quite a bit too stiff with the ring mode going off both ends and not closing. The x-mode frequency needs bringing down quite a bit to get to an octave below the ring mode.
Back x-mode @ 201Hz with initial graduationsBack ring mode @ 374Hz with initial graduations
After a bit of work I managed to match the back and top ring modes an octave above the x-modes at about 180Hz. The plates are still a bit heavy but this gives me something to work with when tuning the bass bar after cutting the f-holes.
Belly (80g) ring mode @ 364HzBelly (80g) x-mode @ 181Hzback (110g) ring mode @ 363HzBack (110g) x-mode @181Hz
F-Holes
I marked out the outline of the f-holes using the printed paper template I had designed and pricking through with a pin to mark the outline on the top. I then drilled the top and bottom holes with a forstner bit and opened them up to correct dimensions with the reamers I use for peg holes.
With the top carefully clamped to the cork faced form, I used a fine toothed coping saw to cut a rough outline and then carved off the excess with a scalpel.
First results are shown here but still needs a bit of fettling to get the two holes balanced.
F-holes carved – not quite even yet
Bass Bar
Next I sliced up a nice piece of quarter sawn spruce on the bandsaw and sanded down to 5.5mm wide on the drum sander. I cut this to length and marked the underside profile with a pencil using a block of wood while the blank bar was gently clamped in place on the belly. Then I planed the underside profile down to the pencil lines and chalk fitted to the inside of the top aiming to get the outside edge of the bass bar 1mm inside the outside edge of the bridge foot with a 2mm slant outwards from top to bottom.
After gluing in the bass bar I tuned the bar to match the top and then gradually worked both the top and back down in frequency to match each other and get as low a weight as possible (my client wants a light easy to play instrument) with the ring tones just below F.
Top mode 2 @ 170HzTop mode 5 @343Hz and 73gBack mode 2 @ 166HzBack mode 5 @ 343Hz & 99g
So to the task of joining the violin plates from the bookmatched back and belly sets. First I squared up the beautiful maple blanks and planed the two edges together to ensure a good fit. This was so much easier to do compared with the cello as the pieces of wood are so much smaller/lighter and the join quite short. I heated the pieces gently with the air gun and then glued them together with a rubbed joint which worked really well first time.
Gluing the back with a rubbed joint
Next I planed the underside surface flat before tracing the outline from the ribs and using a washer to give the external dimension including 2.5mm overhang.
I cut out both belly and backs on the bandsaw leaving a bit of waste to be cleaned up after shaping the outside profile.
This was so quick I ran the same process for the belly.
Carving the outside profile
Next I created a set of templates for both back and belly based on the profile curves published by Sergei Muratov (the same source I used for the cellos). I drew these up in solvespace and then stuck the full size printed drawings to a piece of perspex, cut out on the band saw and then finished on the vertical oscillating sander. I finished by spraying these with a bright paint – different colours for front and back so they didn’t get mixed up.
profile templates for the bellyProfile templates for the back
Then to carving starting with a 3/4″ no 5 sweep chisel to get the rough shape.
Rough shaping the belly and back
I cut a 10 mm wide platform at the edge with the router using the same attachment I made for the cello work.
Router attachment clamped to the bench
These were cut at the finished edge thicknesses of 3.7 mm (back) and 4 mm (belly) and make it much easier to start the gouge cuts.
Then I moved onto using thumb planes.
Here I am getting pretty close to the final profile.
I tack assembled the back and belly to the sides to cut the side overhangs down to final size – 2.75mm except for the c-bouts at 3mm. Started with the knife and finished with files with a piece of waste of the correct thickness taped to the middle of the file.
Also cut the corner shapes with a knife.
Just finished setting the edge overhangs with some simple tool/jigs
Purfling
Next job is to cut the purfling groove so I made up a simple holding jig for the body first.
Base made for holding the violin body when working on it
Then I made up a laminate 1.4mm thick for the purfling of 0.3mm black (ebonised pear), 0.8mm white (sycamore) and another 0.3mm black. I sliced this up on the bandsaw into strips about 2.5mm wide.
Purfling after slicing up on the bandsaw
Then I marked the purfling groove on the front and back with special gauge set in 4mm from the edge and deepened these faint marks with a scalpel lubricated with dry soap and carefully carved out the groove with a 1mm chisel.
Groove cut for the purflingPurfling fitted and channel roughly cutBelly arching done
Next I carefully fitted the purfling using the bending iron taking special care with the corners and glued up with hot glue.
Then trimmed back with a chisel when dry and gouged the channel round the edge about 1mm deep before fairing everything in with scrapers and checking the final arching.
Back arching done
There is a slight blemish in the maple on the back. I was hoping I would get through it with arching but there is a tiny thin bit left and I would rather keep the proper arching than keep on scraping away – it looks like bark but it can’t be as it was not visible before carving. Should dissappear when the back is coloured anyway.
Thicknessing
I started by marking out the thickness profile contours and then drilled on the bench press to a few millimeters thicker than this to make the rough thicknessing quick and safe.
Back drilled to rough depth for hogging out
Then I roughed out with a large gouge.
Belly inside roughed out
Now I have to build a caliper/nail tool for marking the finished thickness before plate tuning.
New tool for needle marking the thickness
And it works really well – I have made it big enough so I can do a cello with it.
Back depth marked with the new tool
Nearly down to the initial thicknesses before plate tuning.
I split some willow to make the blocks and set them at 32mm high at the bottom tapering to 30mm high at the neck and after getting them good and square, glued them into the form which I supported on a few pieces of plywood to get the form more or less into the centre of the blocks.
Blocks glued into form
Then I used the perspex template to mark the outline on the blocks ready for carving.
Blocks marked ready for carving
When the glue was dry I carved the blocks down to the marked outline with a chisel and finished with a round file. The split willow carves very easily but because they are so small this is so much quicker to do on the violin compared to the cello – although you have to go slowly to get the accuracy required!
Blocks carved to shape
Preparing and fitting the violin ribs
Next I thinned the ribs down to 1mm with a combination of the drum sander and then scrapers. The figuring has to be matched up so the stripes all point upwards when looking at the back. Next the pieces were cut to size and carefully bent after damping in a wet tea towel and then finally glued to the blocks using pre-shaped cauls.
Gluing on the rib
Then I planed the edges of the ribs down to make sure everything was perfectly flat.
ribs cleaned up ready for gluing in linings
Adding the Linings
I thinned the willow linings to 2.1 mm on the drum sander and cut them 10 mm wide on the band saw (aiming for 8 mm finished depth) to leave a few mm proud for trimming back flush to the ribs.
Gluing in the linings on the C bouts
I was able to re-use the peg clamps I made for the cello and just substituted a thinner pivot piece to get a parallel clamp on the 1 mm ribs + 2.1 mm linings.
More liningsLinings in and cleaned up flush with ribs
Now to move onto the back where I have some gorgeous maple to play with!
I had already decided to try my hand at making a violin after 2 successful cellos when someone in the orchestra actually commissioned me to make them a violin on the strength of my cellos!
I already had the Harry S. Wake book on violin making from the cello work but bought another book on amazon by Juliet Barker which I found I could not put down once started because it answered a whole load of questions that had been floating around my mind from the process of building the 2 cellos. Interestingly I also discovered that she only wrote the book because of encouragement from David Dyke who supplies me with my instrument wood! – small world.
As with the cellos I decided to draw my own plans – not because I think I can do better than Stradivarius – but more so that I understand the basics of how the shape can be produced, have something I can repeat without access to 3rd party plans and so I have a clear reference point if I need to adapt the design in future.
I used the solvespace parametric drawing package again referring to the Strad design in Harry Wake’s book for key dimensions. The result is within a gnat’s whisker of the strad outline but achieved very simply.
Here is the inside mold outline as a result and the solvespace file if anyone wanted to adapt it.
The form layout glued onto a piece of perspex before cutting out on the bandsaw
After cutting out the perspex and carefully sanding to get an exact profile, I used the template to mark out the outline of the inner mold on a piece of 18mm plywood. After careful sanding down to the exact dimensions, cutting out the recesses for the corner/end blocks and adding a few coats of varnish it looked like this:
Just got back from another expensive but most profitable visit to David Dyke down near the South coast. Came back with the boot loaded up with enough wood for the next cello and my first violin.
New load of wood for cello #3 and first violin
Spent this morning doing the design for the violin inside mold using the solvespace parametric drawing package again.
I have decided to do a blog of the violin making process like I did for the cello so that interested parties can follow the progress as well as providing me with a reminder of what I did!
I finally completed my second effort at cello making and delivered the finished instrument to George (who christened her “Beryl”) just in time to play the Stratford Symphony’s summer concert.
Here are a few recordings made at George’s Bank Cottage studio:
And a set of pictures of the finished instrument kindly taken by George .
A complete pictorial record of Beryl’s 6 month build process can also be found here.
Really exciting day – I just collected the wood from David Dyke down in Sussex to start on cello number 2.
Procuring the cello wood
A whole lot of wood!Rough cut neck to let it settle
Front and back plate preparation
And here are the belly and back book matched pairs getting glued up after spending hours getting a perfect joint – lovely flame on the maple back.
Back halves glued up
Managed to do the back without clamps but the spruce always seems to move a bit when heated up for gluing so I just needed a slight clamp pressure to get it tight.
Top all clamped upGluing the book matched top
The belly wood has a wonderful ring to it and great grain even and straight structure.
I also started to thin the maple ribs down to size on the drum sander but not to finished size so that I could scrape a finish on what will be the outside.
Top trued upBack trued up
The cello ribs
Ribs getting down to size
Will have to scrape them next because I don’t want to see any sanding marks on the finished instrument.
And here are the blocks cut ready to to glue into the form. The end blocks are in spruce, corner blocks in willow as it is more forgiving to carve.
Blocks cut ready to glue into formBlocks glued in and trued upBlocks being carvedGluing the ribstrimming the rib edges to match the formIn the middle of fitting the liningsLinings fitted to the ribs on the top side – just need trimming downGluing up using home-made peg clamps
Note I have added some removable sections to the central form at top and bottom to make removal easier after gluing the linings.
Merlin inspecting the ribs just removed from the form
Just need to carve the blocks to shape and chamfer the linings.
Carving the cello back plate
Top and back roughly cutout on bandsawGetting ready to carve the arch
I built a simple jig to use with my small router so that I could cut the edges to the right thickness (5.5mm all around, 5mm in the C-bouts and 6mm at corners) with the top firmly clamped down onto the workbench.
Simple router attachment for thicknessing the edges of the back and top
This is an enormous improvement to the approach used on my first cello and as well giving a really consistent edge thickness, it gave me something to aim at when rough chiselling the back profile.
Back rough carved
Edges cleaned up on the drum sander and slots for purfling marked up.
Outside of back profile finished ready to cut purfling slotsGetting ready to glue up the purfling laminatePurfling in, channels cut and profile rough scrapedThickness contours marked
I used my new pillar drill to good purpose to drill out depth guide holes across the whole back (the old drill didn’t have a wide enough throat to reach the centre of the instrument).
Thickness guide holes drilled
Now to start the long process of thumb planing the inside to give the correct thickness profile and plate tuning to get the right mode shapes and frequencies.
Back hollowed out roughly ready for plate tuning
Carving the cello front plate
Now to start on the spruce top. I got to this point in just a day.
Working on the profile of the top. Spruce is so much quicker to work than the maple!
Came across a resin inclusion when carving out the top. On scouring the internet this is apparently quite common in good tops (1 in 10 maybe) and no problem – just have to to shape a plug to fit the cleaned out hole.
Resin inclusion cleaned out ready for plugPlug shaped and ready to glue inPlug glued in
Then a final bout of scraping to get a perfect profile before marking out the purfling channels and deepening with a scalpel.
Top profile finished and purfling channel markedTop purfled
Next step is to cut the channel and fair everything in before hogging out the back side of the plate.
Outside finishedInside roughly carved ready for plate tuning
Cello plate tuning
Top plate mode 5
I thinned the plate until I got good clean mode 2 and 5 shapes but before going further on the top I have to cut the f-holes and fit the bass bar.
f holes carved out – just need to undercut them and do the V’sf-holes cut and bass bar glued in
Tuning the bass bar
Started with a bass bar 11mm wide and initial depths set according to the following table:
Proportion of length
0
1/8
1/4
3/8
1/2
Depth (mm)
9
15
21
27
29
Then progressively reduced the depth to get the changes of mode shapes shown in the gallery below.
Reducing the ends helped to close the ring-mode shape but also reduced the x-mode frequency which I was generally trying to maintain. Reducing the centre of the bar predominately reduces the ring-mode frequency but I also had to thin the edges of the top and the centre of the upper bout between corners to try and get the ring-mode down to an octave above the x-mode.
A final tap tuning allowed to identify and remove any thick or high stiffness spots both on the top and the bass bar.
The final bass bar ended up only 18 mm high in the centre with X-mode of 58.2 Hz and ring-mode of 121.5 Hz. I then thinned the back to match those frequencies – much easier – and got 59.2 Hz and 120 Hz.
Making the box
Started by gluing the sides onto the back after first re-enforcing the sides with strips of linen.
Back glued onAnd the all important label! You can also see the rib re-enforcement strips of linenGluing on the topNow what about that neck!
The Cello Neck
The neck blank I cut back in March had settled a bit so I squared it up with the plane and then marked up and cut it out on the band-saw.
Neck blank roughly cut to size on the band-sawScroll nearly finishedScroll detail underneath
Next step is fitting the neck to the body.
I did a drawing of the fingerboard profile to give an even break over the strings at the bridge of 21 degrees and then an action over the end of the fingerboard ranging from 4 mm at the A-string to 6.5 mm at the C-string. This showed I needed a 2.4 degree slope on the neck towards the bass side. I have heard of 1.8 degrees being used so ended up going for 2 which still looks quite a slant!
Marked up the heel with this 2 degree slant narrowing the heel down to 27 mm at the bottom with enough material to give me a 22 mm overstand on the A-string side.
Before fitting the neck I will cut and shape the fingerboard and stick it in place temporarily to aid in getting the set of the neck right.
Setting the neck angle before shaping the neck and heelNeck shaped and ready for gluing to the bodyCello completed in the white – now for a bit of a tan in the light box
Finishing the cello
I started by making up a varnish ground coat from a recipe I found on the internet in an article by Harris, Sheldon and Johnston.
This consisted of cooking up Boiled linseed oil and rosin at 180C for a few hours in the ratio of 1 part linseed oil to 1.5 parts rosin by weight until the mixture achieved a sticky toffee like consistency when cooled. I used my trusty mini fat fryer to do this safely in a double boiler arrangement using cooking oil instead of water. I then added turpentine so that the resultant cooled varnish had a golden syrup like consistency.
Then I ground in 10g of Kaolin (china clay) to 30ml varnish with 7ml of rabbit skin glue and added water until I had a nice creamy consistency that could easily be applied with the fingers and then ragged off to give an even finish.
Ground coat applied
Then into the UV cabinet for a day.
In the UV cabinet
I added a few coats of shellac to make sure it was all sealed properly, cut back with 600 grade wet and dry and then a final wiped on coat of shellac before applying the first colour coat and drying in the UV cabinet.
After 1st colour coatAfter 1st colour coat
.
Back after smearing in oil pigments by hand
Next I mixed up some oil pigments – 1 squirt of burnt umber, 1 squirt of burnt sienna and, a bit less than half a squirt of alizarin crimson and a little boiled linseed oil and then smeared on by hand until the colour was the right depth and fairly even and then back into the UV cabinet.
Wasn’t entirely happy with that – a bit streaky on close up – so rubbed most of it off with a turps soaked cloth and put it back on with several much thinner layers so as to leave no marks.
Result has a nice warm glow and enough variation to look interesting!
Nearly there on the colouring – think I might add a bit of blue next!
It will darken up a bit more after another 3 or so colour coats.
The back after next colour coat
Next colour coat appliedAfter 2nd colour coat – curing the old fashioned way under the sun!
Back after 2nd colour coat – curing in the sun
One more colour coat and then a couple of clear coats before cutting back and polishing.
Curing outside in the sun on one of the few sunny weekend days this year! – Just like the old Cremona makers used to do.
It all looks a bit shiny at the moment but that will go once the finish it has been cut back – aim to get a nice satin sheen.
Clear coats next.
Applied 2 top coats and then cut the varnishing back with micromesh down to 4000 grit and then finished with rotten stone and linseed oil. The cello has a wonderfully rich chestnut sheen to it.
The finished back
Glued the neck on after removing the keeper, and then fitted the pegs, saddle and endpin.
Only things left now are oiling the neck, and fitting the nut and bridge
Just finished the instrument and delivered to a very happy customer (George) who christened it “Beryl” in time for our weekend concert with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra!
“Anna” right (with me – David) and “Beryl” left (with George) at rehearsals
I just got back from an exciting afternoon with my good friend George Shilling at his Bank Cottage recording studio in the Cotswolds. George kindly spent some time recording my new cello “Anna” (after a visit to the pub).
You can find the resulting pictures and recordings here.