MikeC

That's something I would like to get. Where is it available?

Wow you have almost as many open tabs as I have.

Davide show an example of repair if you have any pictures of that. Would you make it look like new again or would you smooth it out so it begins to take on an antique look?

Wow that's quite a difference in color, inside vs. outside.

That is certainly a router plane. The blade is pointed in the right direction but it looks like it may be upside down. I wonder what use it would have in making musical instruments. Usually it would be used for smoothing tenons for mortice and tenon joinery. They used to be called hags tooth planes. Look that up on google and you'll see pictures of them.

You show yours pointed towards the short end of the brass, I have mine pointed the other direction, not sure if that matters.

Actually I can post a picture now since I woke up and can't get back to sleep so I dug through my pictures here and found it. See how I slightly rounded the tips rather than the needle sharp points that they originally had. It came with four blades and I lost one. As I recall I placed them so both bevels were facing the same direction to get the right width for the channel but I'm not sure if I remember correctly, It may have been both bevels facing in. Of course if both bevels face out then there is no distance between the points so I couldn't have had them oriented that way. Use them just for initial marking not cutting full depth, use a knife for full depth cuts. I used an exacto but that's probably not the best knife to use since the tip is so thin and it can too easily follow grain lines especially in spruce. I think a small curved blade with a stouter tip would work better for that so I may have to order some tool steel and make one.

I use the brass tool pictured and had to make major modification to the tips of the blades. I'll show pictures tomorrow but can give a description for now. When I got it from amazon the blades were sharpened to a needle like tip. They needed to be ground down so that one side is flat and one side beveled. Like a single bevel knife, Think chisel, flat on one side bevel on the other. After reshaping the blades the channels came out just right.

I have some lac dye on order. I was thinking of how to use it as a coloring agent in varnish. Still thinking of using a spirit varnish with alcohol soluble linseed oil and other alcohol soluble resins. Lac dye is water soluble but I don't know if it will dissolve in alcohol. The madder tincture has a nice effect on maple but causes grain reversal on a spruce test sample.

A test sample, the dog likes it apparently judging by the tooth marks. I'm glad he didn't chew it up. I use this to mark the overhang of the plates from the ribs.

Violins don't exist when you're not looking at them. That's the Copenhagen interpretation of violins.

Neck root close to finished, made this after watching Davide Sora video. Also a small jar of madder tincture. I accidently tipped it over and got way too much water in it so I need to evaporate some out. Also we went to the North Ga mountains this weekend. Here's Ice dripping off the side of the cliffs by the road. And I probably shouldn't show this because I don't have much artistic talent but while we were up in the mountains we did some painting.

Here's a finish I like, found it online. Strad 1715. Now how does one get a varnish color like that?

That's different! I like it!

What are we looking at in this picture. What violin is that and what finish is on it? I see you responded in Italian. I am trying to learn to read Italian thanks!

wow a 20 year old thread well they must have had access to shellac after all where do think the lac dye came from and most of them have been french polished and that's mostly shellac but we now know the varnish itself is an oil / conifer resin varnish. I wonder if lac dye may have been used a coloring agent in the varnish. Would that have been detectable in more recent analysis?

I have a Record #6. I haven't checked it for flatness but it makes fine shavings.

Actually if you skip to about 6 minutes in. This video shows the critical areas that need to be flat. A little different from what I said earlier.

I don't think the lever cap is as important as the chip breaker, the chip breaker needs perfect fit against the blade otherwise you will get wood slivers wedging in between the chip breaker and blade. The sole needs to be flat in front of and behind the opening that the blade goes through and it need to be flat at the front end of the plane and the back end. Some hollow between those areas is not too big a deal.

I'm not keen on trying the egg yolk emulsion but an old kit fiddle that I put together a few decades ago had a finish that I never did like so I stripped it and refinished it using amber shellac and it does give a nice base color. I did that after reading Michael Darnton's PDF on finishes. So that's an option. Uncolored varnish seems like a good option also. I assume the marienglass is just a pore filler and would end up transparent / invisible? Information overload for sure! One thing I don't like the look of is when a colored varnish scratches or chips off revealing bright white wood underneath so I want to have some kind of color in the wood but I don't want something that's going to look dull and non reflective.

Seriously though, I'm at the point where I need to put something on wood and I've been reading this thread and browsing lots of other old threads here on MN and there are so many different things that have been discussed over the years, I still have not really settled on what to use.

I'll have to catch a few tree rats and see if I can squeeze the oil out them.

What is BSO ?

Beautiful!

I just checked your website also. Beautiful instruments. You need to give us lessons on finishing and antiquing!