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.