pbelin

I'm starting to feel the effects of age, and I can't fit a soundpost with my glasses on. in a way it's quite practical to be so short sighted.. But I realise every time I do an arching how my glasses distort my vision. I did an experiment once, and made a plate without them, it turned so much fuller that what I normally do, and I had to start all over again. If I get surgery some day, it will probably take me 3 or 4 instruments before the arches go back to normal...

Cornelissen's tartrazine yellow is, as w&n's Indian yellow was, tartrazine Lake. No need to look further if you want to keep using the same stuff.

Yes cooked rosin and some cochineal lake

Not what I meant to do... I somehow edited the last post. Anyway, the back and scroll are done, I hope to be able to send the violin over in a week or so. (after I finished the front and ribs of course!)

Nope, I cooked this one long ago, but I guess it's Kremer's clear stuff.

Nope, I cooked this one long ago, but I guess it's Kremer's clear stuff.

No problem... Just rosin and oil.

Thanks, The neck is sealed, so that's the colour I get before I start brushing the varnish on. The varnish is 1 part linseed oil 2 parts cooked rosin. I think the oil was cooked with lead white but I' m not too sure anymore. The sealer, ground, call it whatever you like, is the varnish, only hardly dilute and rubbed in the wood. Once is enough.

Hi everyone. I'm sorry for being so late with this, but I had a lot of other projects going on. Still have, but now I've started varnishing the violin! Good thing is, it took a nice tan in all this time. There are 2 coats of clear varnish, I'll keep doing that until the surface is good enough to start with colour. This is how I normally do, and is in my opinion the reason why the clear coat is much thicker on del Gesù's instruments than on Stradivari's. More coming in the next days.

Xylol (weisshaar cleaner) works quite well for that, normally not aggressive on the varnish, but as always test it first. One thing it's aggressive on is your brain, so use adequate protection.

I do both, strad mostly ( but not only) on the P form and late del gesù (sainton, Alard and lately vieuxtemps) . I'm also trying to make something on the amati Grand Pattern, a bit Andrea Guarnerish, but that's because I like it. I find different musicians require different models. Someone who just wants to play, have a big sound and an easy violin will go for the Guarneri, someone who wants something finer but maybe a bit more complicated to play will go for the strad. I'd say I make 2/3 del gesù and 1/3 strad.

Indeed, some pieces are truly torrefiing

These are the tools (the tip of the blade broke as I was ramming it in the maple). Home made purfling pic. I think if I wanted it less clean it would take me much longer. Another solution would be to leave a lot of bumps on the outline, but that would also take longer... If the cutter is sharp it takes about 5 minutes to do the front, takes one single cut.

I use cutters with one blade and a depth stop. I normally take a bit more time, but I wanted to try and see if speed could explain the way late del gesùs purfling looks like.

I'm afraid I have no solution to offer. I plane my shavings for purfling, I stain them, sometimes not very well, I wait till they are very dry to glue them, last del gesù model took me all in all 1h to purfle (back and frown, all by hand) and I don't bend the purfling to make sure it breaks. Looks nothing like del gesù, way too clean. I'd be happy about new ideas..