Joseph Liu

Definitely not worth fixing. Sorry to say.

I have the exact same surface plate. It is so much flatter than marble pieces that you can get from local stores. I believe I paid $50 just for shipping 10 years ago.

Jacob: sorry about the photo size, I didn't realize it until you mentioned it. And, Thanks for the comment! Thank you Mark for making the pictures smaller!

Thanks Ken & Roderick!

Very nice painting!!

Here is my most recent violin, finished last week! It's modeled on the Ysaye del Gesu. Joseph

I have worked on a couple of them before. Both bows had great workmanship and balance. They were also very attractive and very easy to play. I believe that the bows will be collectors items in the near future, because he is one of the important modern French makers and teachers.

I have the Understanding Wood book and have used it constantly as a reference. I would highly recommend it to any wookworker, violin and bow maker, and people who are intereted in wood properties and work method.

Beautiful violin!

Nice instrument! How does sapele work as a violin tonewood?

There is a violin made by renowned maker Raymond Schryer on his website that has a quilted maple back. To me, it looks like european maple on the slab. Big leaf maple (USA/Canada) can have incredible quilted figure, and many people refer to big leaf maple when they say quilted maple. I don't know what species of maple the Chinese instrument in the thread is. I don't have a lot of experience with Chinese maple which I heard comes mostly from the earthquake ridden Sichuan province. Raymond Schryer's violin: http://www.violincello.com/violin.spml

I don't work there anymore, but the Hans Weisshaar violin shop has many original Hill chinrests. There are also a couple of carved cello pegs and a couple of violin tailpieces that I believe are original Hill.

Hi Atomino, The mouth is not an instantly "adjustable' one. But you can change the opening width by changing the thickness of the rosewood piece in the picture. The thickness of the rosewood piece can go from the 0 to all the way to the blade. I made mine by planing the piece so it touches the blade tip when I put it in its bed, then I bevel the side facing the blade so the opening is less about 1 mm. If I want it smaller, I slide the picec down a little. Then trim the part that sticks out from the sole of the plane by filing and sanding. Sorry if the explanation is not clear. It would be easier if I could draw it for you.

John: You are welcome! NewNewbie: I sharpen the blade at a 30 degree angle. For this plane and this blade material, it works quite well.

I agree with Lymond on Colbourn in Los Angeles. In the UK, Royal Conservatory of Music/Kings College in London.

Ok. I got a chance to measure it. The ebony body is 4 1/2" long, 1 3/4" wide and 27mm high. The blade bed angle is 60 degrees, and the angle of the rosewood mouth opening adjuster piece is at 50 degrees. The blade is 29.5 mm wide almost 3mm thick, and 64mm long. The hard maple wedge is 8mm hick and the brass dowel is 1/4" dia. The body can be made from two pieces of wood with the two beds sandwiched by the two flanks like the HNT Gordon kit at http://www.hntgordon.com.au/prodcatblockkit.htm The rosewood piece is held by two cap screws threaded into the ebony body. The rosewood piece also has two vertical slots to enable it to slide up and down. I put a bevel at the of the piece so when the mouth edge is worn, the piece can be moved down to have a tighter openning. The raised back end of the ebony body was added by gluing a piece of ebony for a striking surface for the hammer to adjust blade depth. It was a fun and very useful plane to make.

Thank you very much. I use it for planing bow sticks, mostly bevel down to have a small mouth openning. It can also be used bevel up as a scraper plane. I will have to measure it for the dimensions. The blade is a high speed steel blade from HNT Gordon in Australia. The body is Gabon ebony.

Thank you Tom! I think I want to get the book, too.

Good job Kelvin!!

Cool blog posts!

I went to the bow course a few years ago. It was really good! There hasn't been a violin restoration course at Oberlin in years, has ther?

ispirati, The violin looks to be the Pietro of Mantua that we are currently offering at Hans Weisshaar. Joseph

Yes! I am a graduate of LSU and a big fan! It's too bad that they were eliminated a couple of days ago from the College World Series. I also learned to play the violin at LSU from the teaching assistants of Sally O'Reilly and Camilla Wicks.

Hey, Fightin' Tigers, Fight all the way Play Fightin' Tigers, win the game today. You've got the know how, you're doing fine, Hang on to the ball as you hit the wall And smash right through the line You've got to go for a touchdown Run up the score. Make Mike the Tiger stand right up and roar. ROAR! Give it all of your might as you fight tonight and keep the goal in view. Victory for L-S-U! I am a violin restorer.

For me, the Hill style chinrest clamps are really uncomfortable on my collarbone since I do not play with a shoulder-rest. From my observations: The advantages of Hill style chinrest clmaps: 1. The way that the clamps are attached to the wooden part of the chinrest are more secure and less likely to cause cracks on the wooden part of the chinrest. 2. Again, becuase of the design of the mechanical parts, the chinrest is more secure in maintaining overall form and thus have a longer life. 3. The two screws are independent and it means that adjusting and tightening are easier to perform. 4. The two barrels can be placed farther apart and stability could be improved for a particular chinrest design. 5. The overall design helps the chinrest to stay on the instrument better and thus could prevent overtightening especially evident with older conventional chinrest clamps. The disadvantages: 1. The Hill style chinrest clamps feet stick out more and could be uncomfortable to some players. 2. The overall robust structure could cause someone unfamiliar with this type of chinrest clamps to overtighten initially. 3. When the positions or the angles of the two legs do not match or are not correct, they are harder to repair than the conventional type. 4. They are a little heavier and add weight to the instrument.