Violin Forum/Message Board

[actonern]

Good execution of purfling corners is so important. I'm wondering if there's anything like a tutorial on getting this right on Stradivari models?

Michael, can you be prevailed upon here???

E

[Andres Sender]

https://www.violins.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4901&sid=1db981412327192e06494d13febb2823
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[actonern]

Thanks Andres:

Its the apparent emphasis on maintaining the line, whether the purfling is sufficient or not. Specifically, looking closely at the purfling at the very corner, it looks like careful work on the Harrison, yes, but purfling alone wouldn't be able to maintain the line... he uses ebony and glue filler?

That being the case, I'm wondering what kind of workflow you'd need to get it all right. Would you always dab a spot of mastic into the corner and then apply glue to the rest of the groove and insert the purfling? I can't imagine it would be easier to glue the purfling in and THEN add the mastic, since the glue gells quickly, and getting the mastic in would be hard?

Best regards,

Ernie

[actonern]

Some of Strad's corners, like on the Betts, seem to have a good deal of mastic in them...

[Andres Sender]

I haven't worked with filling purfling corners. My guess about how to proceed would start with the fact that it's not difficult to use hot water and a small brush to clear glue out of gaps if you're patient.

I think the most important thing for nice corners is your knife work. If you can learn to cut a nice corner, you can learn to cut a nice corner that can be filled by purfling alone. Then you just need good quality purfling that cooperates.

A few years into Michael D's workshops a fellow showed up with corners that one could project to giant size on a screen using an overhead projector and they still looked fantastic. Several of us vowed to buy the same disposable blades he was using...
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You can only connect the dots that you have.

[Michael Darnton]

You can do what Strad did without fill. You just need to watch, very carefully while you cut and get the wood to go where it's needed.

When I fit purfling, I use my 11" focus glasses AND an optivisor, to get extremely close and really see what's happening, then make small decisions as to where to cut to make happen what I want to happen. For years I did it with my bare eyes, and that didn't work at all--things looked fine enough, but in the gluing they never came together as well as I predicted and then it went downhill from there.

Each step--fitting, gluing, final cutting and scraping, varnishing--makes things look clearer, and if you haven't done a good job, worse. You really need to get it perfect in the first step.

The other thing to do is establish a standard pattern/procedure. For instance, I cut the beesting exactly 2mm past the natural junction point of the tips, and then I blend the line from the c-bout out that last 2mm with a specific number and type of cuts, so that it always comes out the same. If you just hack at it until it's right, each corner comes out different. As was discussed in that other thread, I think, Stradivari did this, also, with visible flat cuts. You can see one of these, and it's larger than it usually is, passing through the blue circle at 4:00 in the picture in that thread. It's a little wider as the circle, but displaced down and partly to the right from the center of the circle, starting right below the point of the white purfling, ending above a long black pore. I don't see any fill in that particular corner. . . just good knife work.
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[actonern]

A lot to think through... Much appreciated help.

E