Berl Mendenhall

Sorry guys hit the l instead of the g. In my haste to post this link I got the blogspot miss spelled and I didn’t mention the designer/builder of these thread cutting tools. His name is Loffelholz Holz. The art work in his book is wonderful, he was not only a woodworker but a very good artist.

http://thomasguild.blolsplot.com Found a video on YouTube about the history of screws. Led me to this web site. Pretty amazing wagon tail vice and twin screw bench vice. Book was written in 1509 by a German. I would have thought these vices were much later. Got lots illustrations of tools for making wood threads. Very similar to my thread cutting tools.

Glad you like it. I think we can learn a lot from Maggini. Other great Italian makers, besides just Strad and DG.

If you watch any videos on violin making, the one thing they all have in common is an strong heavy workbench. Check Davide Sora’s videos. The two best things I’ve ever built are my two benches.

I feel the same way. I’ve got at least a dozen jars of translucent iron oxide pigments. Couldn’t tell you the last time I used any of those.

I bet there are dozens of nearly full jars sitting around violin maker’s varnish supplies. As for me, I’m tired of looking at it, in the trash it goes.

You guys are aces. Melvin your work has always been sooooooo nice.

Thanks for the explanation. I remember now why I didn’t use it. I thought there is no way the Cremonese makers used all that stuff mixed together. About this time I started using pumice. Only years later switching to Plaster Of Paris. Haven’t looked back sense.

My reason for asking is, I nearly through the stuff in the trash. I’d be happy to give it to someone that uses the stuff. I bought it years ago thinking I might try it. It seems to me he used it with water glass and the different grades of rosin oil. That may be right or wrong, it’s been many years. Bottom line, if anyone can use it, it’s yours. Kremer wants thirty five dollars for a jar like this. You pay shipping.

Does anyone use this stuff?

I had a prominent author and restorer tell me, he was convinced that whatever Strad used was simple. He said he believed Strad made it up there in his shop. I agree with all that. He was just trying to make a living. I don’t believe there was anything secret about his process.

There are some amazing grounds here. I’ve been away from violin making for a few years. Looks like I need to play catch-up. Very impressive everyone.

I like your comment each piece of wood behaves differently. Great admiration for those ( Davide Sora comes to mind ) who has a great system and can duplicated it every time.

Jackson, this is “my” first attempt at making a balsam ground. It’s heat treated colophony crushed fine and mixed with mineral spirits. I would like to have had some good turpentine, I didn’t want to wait on an order I was impatient wanted to play with this stuff. The mineral spirits didn’t completely dissolve the resin, but enough to work.

Here is my new ground system. 1st. picture is the back side of this piece of wood. Not much figure, pretty faint. 2nd. Plaster of Paris. Made a paste and rubbed in well. Then rubbed off excess after drying. 3rd. One coat of balsam ground. 4th. Second coat of balsam ground. 5th. After 3 coats of spirit varnish. I’m going to do some experiments with adding color to the ground.