Jim Bress

Slow progress. Box, FB, and scroll are done. Time to shape the neck. I’ve been sidetracked preparing 3 neck blocks to take on a 4 week work related road trip. My evening activity will be carving 3 scrolls in my hotel “workshop”. Still can’t push a plane, so pushing wood instead.

Glad it worked for you. Jim Breast

Gorgeous maple E. I've always loved the look of nice quilted maple. What do people not like about Big leaf maple? Is it just because the old guys didn't use it? I didn't know Merrill, but I've never heard anything good things about him and the Wood Well. RIP. -Jim

Due to circumstances beyond my control (work), I will be near Alex's place in September and passing by Jackson's place on the trek home. So I will be hand delivering the rib structure to Jackson. I'm looking forward to both visits. -Jim

Not that I'm searching for a better mouse trap, but is there any deformation in "normal" sound post end grain? In other words does the combination of end grain and yielding of the plates make a harder sound post (e.g. old yellow pine nail benders that Chris mentioned) irrelevant to potential damage to the spruce top. I'm thinking the end grain of spruce sound posts can easily damage the face grain of the belly during poor adjustments, and will certainly damage the top and not the sound post if the instrument is dropped or struck. By yielding, I'm thinking of the futile exercise of trying to hammer a nail in an unsupported 2 x 4 overhanging a work bench by a few feet. It just wont happen because the board will yield absorbing the force of the hammer blow just as the plates will move with a tighter sound post up to the point when the sound post is too tight. Sorry for the early morning ramble. Probably shouldn't have brewed that second pot of coffee. -Jim

To my knowledge these are exit holes and you could kill any remaining larvae with heat treatment. Something like 150 F for several hours, but I don’t know precisely. For me, the major concern would be how to know if the tunnels have weakened the structure of the wood where you can’t see it. The borate solution is good for preventing wood worm (beetle larvae) infection. I am not sure how well it will kill active larvae in the wood. -Jim

Good question Tommy. I’ve only used 315 gram strength. However, I use different gel times (thickness) for different things following David Burgess article/posts. I don’t know how gram strength vs. gel time effects the strength of the join. I’m very interested in the responses you get. -Jim

Reading back at the previous posts it looks like I overestimated the interest in the why. No worries.

I'll respond to the evolution hypothesis later tonight when I have a some spare time before bed. -Jim

Of course all forms of wood figure are genetically based, even if an environmental factor or parasite is needed to induce the expression of the trait. There are quite a number of journal articles on the prorogation of wavy (curly, fiddle back etc.) figure in varied tree species such as walnut, poplar, sycamore etc., because the lumber of figured trees are worth more. So far I have only read high (relative to other methods) success in grafting stems from felled logs of good figure and grafting root stock. Progeny F1, and F2 of figured trees is much less successful (based on my readings). Google Scholar is a good search engine for peer reviewed papers. The studies on juglans (walnut) should be close to the top and to me was well written. Hypotheses (or postulates) on the drivers of curly grained expression are thrown around among the papers, but I do not think this particular puzzle is very close to being solved. One of the problems with studying long lived organisms. Cheers, Jim

The last word in the photo caption is the best. "SOLD"

Sorry, for me there’s not enough information to form a conclusion on what the Amati family members were thinking. Hopefully in time I will understand the effects of the different building practices used by the Amatis, Guarneris, and their contemporaries in Cremona and nearby cities.

Sounds nice Julian! While you may not be able to trust the sound coming from computer speakers, Ms. Cox seemed to enjoy playing it with a very relaxed body language which can be very telling. Congrats. -Jim

Excellent post/article Luis! I have a question about necks. Do you aim for higher density neck wood for stability, and possibly contribute to focus (theoretical)? I have this feeling that higher density neck wood could be beneficial but not to the point of making the viola feel unbalanced. Your thoughts? I greatly appreciate your writing, but your words may be wasted on Q. From what I gather he/she(?) is neither a player, maker, or avid listener. Maybe a new breed of troll that while polite is here mostly to waste people's time. Unkind thoughts I know, but nothing else comes to mind. Cheers, Jim