Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Purfling Tryouts
One good thing about getting older is getting smarter. So rather than jumping willy-nilly into purfling my new cello, I took some scraps of the new purfling and tried it out on a scrap of maple. You can see the purfling strip sticking out at the top, and some of the empty groove is lower in the photo by the gouge. My purfling cutter is set to a good distance in from the edge and the width of the knives is fine.
Purfling has a number of functions, but its primary one is adornment- by reinforcing the outline it makes the instrument so much more beautiful. Balancing the distance in from the edge, the width of the strips, and the size of the corners is part of what make a nice looking corner. These plus the artistry of slicing the strips so they join into a seamless point are reliable indicators of the maker's skill.
The channel cut by the gouge after the purfling is is is the first step in the "edgework" but at this point everything is still square. Now I have learned what I wanted to know and now am ready to work on the real thing.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Shop Is As Dirty As A Smithy. Must Be Making Purfling
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Reducing Purfling to Thickness |
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Purfling Ready For Use |
I am making fresh purfling for the new crop of
cellos out of some lovely fresh white poplar and pearwood dyed black. (Pearwood is naturally a mocha color so it takes the black stain
very well, using an ancient 3-step process I learned
many years ago in Germany.)
Stradivari used these woods in his purfling and I like the
historical touch even though it is not essential. And they sure are
pretty, especially the beautiful poplar I got from Dave at B&B Rare Woods in Golden, Colorado. If you ever need some beautiful veneers, he's your man.
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Thicknessing the Pearwood |
I scrape and plane down the black from about 30 thousandths of an inch (.030") to 18 thousandths. For the sake of comparison, an average business card is 11 thousandths. This job fills the shop with black shavings and makes such a tremendous mess that I will be finding this detritus for months around the shop. It is as messy as a blacksmith's shop.
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Checking the Thickness |
Last time I did this job I splurged and bought a nice Starrett micrometer designed for this kind of work. It gets a lot of use when I am doing this job and apart from making the job a lot easier, it is a beautiful piece of precision American engineering. It gives me a good feeling to admire the hand work of others. It is also gratifying to see proof of what we can accomplish in the country.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Titian Helps Me Start a Cello Scroll
As a young maker, my penchant for picking up another task before completely finishing the current one would trouble me. "This is silly. A serious artist should finish each task in order."
This tiresome and pestilential belief was finally banished from my studio after learning that Titian would lay paintings aside for months if he felt like it. Taking the time to deliberate, to reconsider, to take a break and get refreshed is what makes the difference between art and commerce.
This, I tell myself, is why it is perfectly appropriate for me to pick up that lovely slab of maple that will become the neck and scroll of my cello.
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A dainty neck and scroll hide wi |
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Artifact from a different world |
Dating each piece is useful and sometimes surprising how long it has been and how much the world has changed. No Google either.
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Scroll and neck template |
See-through Mylar at the head allows me to choose the grain that will look best on the pegbox and scroll.
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After being sawn out |
After cleaning up the saw marks, the widths of the head and neck are marked and the final shape begins to emerge. But that will be an entry for another day.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Like the first day of school
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Backs for 2 more cellos with a layout template and jointing plane. |
I love this job- it is like the first day of school, full of excitement and promise, with pleasant memories chiming in. Memories of a 1997 purchasing trip; jet-lagged and driving a rented car to Bavaria while big BMWs passed me at 100+ MPH on the Autobahn. Clambering over huge piles of wood to sift and select what I wanted...anxiety of its safe arrival, stacking and storing it. All these years later finding these old friends and dreaming about what a beautiful instrument it will make. Beats working.
The decisive physicality of this work- a joint is either right or it is not- will be a nice counterpoint to my recent occupations. What Hazlitt called the "inefficacy and slow progress of intellectual compared to mechanical excellence." Time for some mechanical excellence.
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This cello back has been through summer heat, winter cold, and a small flood since being purchased in 1997. |
Monday, February 13, 2012
Refining an arching is like playing in tune.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Beauty of Violin Archings
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My harpoon. Normal gouge and pencil show scale. |
"Call me Ishmael" always pops into my head when I unpack this harpoon from its resting place. It has no other use than in rough arching and I like to fancy Queequeg hefting it and considering it thoughtfully. It dwarfs every other carving tool in my shop and I love using it, despite its ungainly square handle. It was meant to be a temporary experiment, replaced with a rounded handle, but I grew fond of its oddness.
I never start quickly with this tool, starting with tentative nibbling at the maple. Soon enough I find myself in tune with it once again, and am able to make large bold cuts of great precision and delicacy. This is deeply satisfying.
Making a blank slab of hard wood into an instrument that will sing for hundreds of years to come is a delightful idea, yet to me something more elemental is happening at this stage of the work. There is an earthy relish to hewing away confidently at the untamed material, outlining the shape which later will be refined into the flowing grace of a beautiful arching. Before I wish it, the moment comes when I must switch to a smaller gouge and small planes to refine the shapes which have been sketched out.
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Regular arching gouge and palm plane to refine arch. |
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