Conor Russell

I’m running out of glue! I’ve been using LMI stuff for years, but I recon I have about six months worth left. Does anyone know if their glue is available from somewhere else? And what other good glues do people like? Many thanks, Conor.

I almost always use gut. I’m not sure that it sounds much better, but I just like it. To tie the ends, I whip them with very thin e string gut, burn the end, scrape off the burnt bit and put on a drop of superglue. I’ve never had one fail. it’s important that the whipping is thick enough to form a shoulder that sits firmly against the ebony. Too thin, and the knot can try to pull through and split the tailpiece.

I made a cello with pre ice age pine from the bog years ago. It was incredibly strong and resonant. But working it was brutal. It was so full of silica that the tools blunted almost immediately, and the resin built up behind the edges, so I constantly had to clean them with acetone. I made it for Peter Kilroy, who made Irish harps, the proper old ones, with boxes of willow and soundboards of bog pine. Fantastic instruments, well worth looking into if you find the time.

A few thoughts on fresh v old wood. Years ago, perhaps having read Roger’s article, I made a violin from really new wood, cut just a year or two. I glued up two sets with casein, concerned about shrinking pressure on the joints. I made a Testore model with one set, and threw the other up on the henhouse roof, to see how good the glue really was (it survived a year of Irish weather) The fresh wood was very free to carve, and I really liked it. It also developed a suntan very quickly, and I had no distortion problems that I remember. I liked the idea that the wood would season as a violin, and I eventually varnished it and sold it. it always amazes me just how much light comes through a new belly compared with an old violin’s. I’ve used some very old fronts, but can’t remember them being much less translucent. But with age, fronts let less and less light through. I wonder if the wood stiffens too. I, and several others have noticed that some of our violins became tight over twenty years or so, and have occasionally thinned the tops a bit because they seemed to have become stiff.

I think maybe the pieces are hiding a couple of screw heads or something.

Hi Andreas, The one on the left. Here are some pictures. Since they are both perched on top of English fiddles, I wondered if they were both related. You see the extra turn on Kennedy scrolls. These are much less refined, but I can’t remember having seen it on other English instruments.

Going through old unfinished projects, I came across this head. It reminded me of one from the British Violin book, on a Jacob Rayman violin, but not belonging to it. Mine is from an old English violin too, I think, but from about 1800 ish. Any idea who made these?

Here’s something i have never seen before. It’s an old violin, the ribs let into the back, that had once a through neck. In each of the back corners, there’s a little wedge of wood let in, as if in an effort to make the edge a bit thicker there. There are no wedges in the front. Any idea what’s this all about?

My favourite were old horn combs, but the teeth wear out, and junk shops, where you’d find them, are a thing of the past. The horn grips the hair a bit. now I’m using half of a double sided plastic nits comb, and it’s every bit as good.

I use old forged shell reamers sometimes, to match an existing taper. They work well, and can be easily sharpened, but they’re much more difficult to direct than the modern reamers. I’d probably chuck the collar. You can mark the reamer with a pencil.

Water can make the job more difficult, as it softens the glue and swells it and the wood, limiting its penetration of a wide joint. It’s useless for example when removing a fingerboard. Alcohol, allowed to wick in from the tip of a brush, will dehydrate the glue and pop the joint. I use it opening edges too. Soaking old cracks with strips of kitchen towel overnight will soften the glue and allow it to be washed away with warm water, without further damaging the wood. I use cold water.

Eliseveldt, I usually make purflings for small instruments in wide strips, about the depth of a violin rib. I make them from veneers, scraped to thickness, and glue them with hide glue over an inside form. Then I cut them into strips with a marking gauge. I get about three violins worth each time. For cellos, I fit the purflings as three loose strips. I put the glue in the cut with a syringe, and wiggle the strips as I knock them in. The glue works its way up between them.

That’s very interesting. i had a Perry violin here that seemed very clearly made in the Mittenwald tradition. It was branded and labelled correctly, and the maker was following the Perry templates, just as a local outworker would have done. I supposed that Perry had had it made, and imported it. I think it was dated about 1810. I wonder were the English bow makers doing the same. The Dodd bows I’ve seen often have wider diagonal facets, and file marks on the stick, especially behind the head. I wonder what the stick work is like on the German bows?

I wasn’t aware of German bows branded Dodd on both frog and stick. I’ve seen more ordinary bows branded on the stick alone, but never with a convincing brand.

As far as I remember it can be had from a sausage making supplie.