Violin Forum/Message Board

Last year we got some new crushed stone on the road to the summer cottage. I noticed there was a lot of mica there glimmering in the sun. I collected a few fist fulls of mica flakes, thinking about ex ...

Nice to have wood provided!

I think the fiddle looks very nice and the decorations on the back are scillfully made. 5 strings are something that interests me. I drew up a model for a small 5 string ...

Hello,
For the fingerboard you can use a little tripoli and linseed oil and rub it in with a cloth.
I'm not an expert on instrument polishes but I have sometimes used a product called super nikco o ...

Thanks for the link. The theft is a very unfortunate event, but the photos are great and very useful indeed.

My top was bought from Germany, so I assume it is from there. Yes it is funny that this violin responded so well right from the start. It was strung up over night before i played it much. There is st ...

Fjodor , is that violin making any music yet? Does is sound like you expected it to sound?

Thanks for asking. I strung it up yesterday, and the bridge is still to be trimmed. But I like it a l ...

Fjodor great job on the varnish and the violin is looking awesome. I'm using Joe's system too same as you, one question is did you do any smoothing between the ground coats or color coats if so what? ...

Nice work Fjodor!
I'm doing scrolls since CT did a bunch. I have never done so many in a row but I wanted to try some ideas while still using my old template. I think they still look a lot like what ...

Thanks kjb,

I had used another varnish before with the tapping method. This varnish was so different to what I was used to, so it took a while to get the hang of it. You are right that a demonstrat ...

Thank you, Ken.

I should add that I used my fingers and a small brush to "tap" and spread the varnish a small area at a time. It was still too thick to brush out after diluting it.

Ken, I had the same problem with a spinning peg. I glued a very thin spruce shaving around the shaft where it touches the pegbox and presses it in place. (I had reamed the hole a bit too large) Now it ...

Oh yes, I noticed the drawing in the photo, the profile...

Are you a pencil artist also?

ct

Oops, that is actually a mug shot of me, drawn by a talented street artist, some years ago, it mus ...

I have tried the Wittner model and think they work pretty well. It can be a bit tricky to ream the holes to the right size, because they have to be pressed in quite hard to stay in place. I'm planning ...

You're going to post your varnish work also , I hope?

On popular demand; here are some pictures of varnishing.

Finished violin:

http://s28.postimg.org/kkt36ibxp/scroll.jpg

http://s28.p ...

Here is a good site that has printable templates (and lots of other good making info)
http://www.luthm.org/

Another way is to follow one of the various Strad posters that includes the outlines and ...