Davide Sora

Yes, overly aggressive files don't work well with spruce. Older files work best for me, the half-round you see in the video has more than 30 years of use. I had to buy back the oval file some years ago, but I remember that when it was brand new I had to be very careful even if it has a very very fine cut, and if the grain of the spruce is particularly tender I still use my old oval file which is the sister of the half-round one (30 years old). Old (worn) files seems to have a "delay" in cutting which helps the smoothness of the cut, although of course they are much slower and require many more

Have you seen this video? I think the only trick is to control the pressure of the files and the sandpaper, when working the spruce the delicacy and precision of the "touch" is fundamental.

There are actually different approaches to making, just watching my videos could be limiting. What a school can offer is closely related to the quality of teaching, which is not necessarily related to the extreme skill or professional reputation of the teachers but to their teaching ability, which is a different skill from that required to make violins.

You probably don't have to cut the tip following the tracing of the purfling cutter, otherwise it will always point in the middle.

Nice corners, but the purfling tip goes too much to the center of the corner, the Stradivarian style would like it with a slight deviation, pointing to a quarter rather than in the middle. Of course it is not mandatory to follow it, even if as you did them they look a little static from a graphic point of view, with the deviation they would have gained some dynamics.

It seems to me that without the wax shellac is more transparent, with the presence of wax it is still "transparent", but not crystal clear.

I think one of the main factors affecting shellac cloudiness is the presence of wax. In the seedlac (raw shellac) the quantity is variable but in general there is a lot of wax. I filter it out almost completely to make my own varnish (which is not the 1704, however, where the wax is part of the recipe) and I generally lose up to 40% of the weight of the initial seedlac (wax and the other residues included).

I have never tried to make pigments from shellac, but in ancient times it was a very prized red. This is a recipe from Jo Kirby's Natural Colorants book, highly recommended if you intend to take the road of making your own pigments. The problem is pigments perform better in oil varnish, using them in alcohol varnish is quite tricky, but it can be done (I do). PS if you try to make this pigment let us know how it works.

https://shop.kremerpigments.com/us/shop/dyes-vegetable-color-paints/36020-lac-dye.html https://shop.kremerpigments.com/elements/resources/products/files/36020e.pdf

Really?!? I can't believe these clichés still exist. Oh well, I know, they exist...

Yes, at the Cremona school it is possible to directly enter the third year by skipping the first two, passing a workshop exam (something like sharpening a tool and making a fingerboard or similar things depending on what the commission decides) and also passing a test for the Italian language, which is mandatory to know. Frankly speaking, it is not too severe an exam, for the OP it would certainly not be a problem to overcome it, but often the admission of new students to the third year is limited by the number of places available, if the classes are already full even if you pass the exam

Great advice!

Good point. I am convinced that almost every glue strength (with good long protein chains not broken) if used properly can give functionally satisfactory results, it is simply a matter of knowing them well and correct the dilution according to the results and types of gluing. Testing is the key, and relying on your own personal experience first of all.

Thanks! I hope you won't consider me on the list of "good channels of older violin makers", I'm not that old! You can guess this from the fact that my videos are in color and not black and white...

Damn, it always gets more views than my channel...