Urban Luthier

i typically do ~25 degrees for most of my gouges. Perhaps a tiny bit steeper for large gouges meant for hogging out a lot of wood quickly.

All you need is here from Davide Sora. Check out his scroll carving videos on YouTube as well. Davide is a top notch maker and excellent teacher.

wow that is really beautiful! I love the colour. I'd like to learn how to turn pegs one day

wonderful!

From a pro point of view I expect you are right... What I meant was, that an amateur (like myself) would have greater success, doing what Jacob suggested -- carefully hand clamping the clean break with hide glue. Creating and successfully using a fixture like the one illustrated in Weisshaar p192) may be more difficult than it looks. With out the right experience I expect it would be easy for the joint to slip under clamping pressure. By the way I've created a Ukulele neck using the diagonal joint method Eric notes above. I expect the joint is actually stronger than the rest of the neck!

if it were me, I'd fix it using Jacob's clamping method

https://shop.ashmolean.org/18-violin-le-messie-by-antonio-stradivari.html

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing your progress...

Really nice Mike, your results look very transparent and the colour is nice to my eye. Have you done any tests where you've varnished over these? Looks like a nice base to start with

thanks for summarizing your workflow Conor this is very helpful... do you use a brush or apply with your fingers? Instead of a volatile solvent-based oil varnish, i'm now learning how to use a solvent free oil varnish (made by Eugene Holtier). It is very similar to what Roger used in the bass book. However I'm unable to apply it in a single coat like what's illustrated in the bass book, as the varnish will run and wrinkle as you note above.

woops... seems I missed the thread of the thread...

Perhaps you are right. However there are those who have figured out a way to do it one or two thick coats. Ground coat and single coat of oil varnish. Courtesy of Roger Hargrave.

Stunning E, really nice work.

Have a look at Davide Sora's youtube channel. https://davidesora.altervista.org Davide is an excellent craftsman and fine instructor

These ground conversions resurface every once in a while and I always find them interesting to read. So much of the scientific analysis is devoted to Strad ground & varnish. My favourite ground can be seen on the Andrea Amati instruments made over 150 years earlier. The painted ones especially seem to have a luminous reflective quality. I took this picture at the Ashmolean (un-cut tenor viola), it really doesn't do it justice. is there any scientific research done on Andrea Amati's ground and varnish?