franciscus

Very glad it works for you too. Cheers, Franc

From the point of view of chemist, and talking about of breathing on the cake of rosin, I have to ask you to tell if the Jack Daniels is better that the Balantines in that regard (as a preparation for the cake's ventilation)

I would add the third one: what the rosin does to the hair and strings?

@sospiri, there is something called the "netiquette", which is the set of rules intended to make the virtual communication civilized. One of the rules states that the deleting of the messages that are already answered is not appropriate move.

I do not see anything strange in the concept that one take the opinion of some expert (real expert) "as is". The mentioned expert is someone who can notice the thing that do not fit into some pigeonhole. And that is one of the reasons because he is an expert.

I cannot agree. I work a lot with colophony, which is the basis for the rosin, but there is a long way from the colophony to the rosin cake. In that way, various materials are incorporated in the final product. There are the differences in the basis (the colophony itself) and in the additives. There is a space for huge differences.

Nope. Fortunately, my money came to me as a result of my daily job so I have an opportunity to regard the violins as a fun.

Frankly, I cannot add anything valuable to the previous analysis because I am far from expert for these things, but if someone like Jacob Saunders say that some violin goes to the "Dutzendarbeit" category, I take it without any grain of salt.

I think so too and I like my fiddle to be the Dutzendarbeit one forever.

A few days ago, I finished the repair of one Dutzendarbeit fiddle, which has a broken rib, as a consequence of lack of upper corner block. So - I installed two upper corner blocks, scraped the inside surface of the top - making it smooth, and replaced the carved bass bar with the new one. Is it still Dutzendarbeit fiddle or something else?

It depends on re-hairer. For the priming, I've never used the pre-powdered rosin, but the powder obtained by sanding the fresh cake using the Norton 3x 220 grit sandpaper. For the application, I use the piece of smooth leather.

Good luck.

Luis, takimg the bottom off is not quite an usual operation. Had you some special reason for that?

I do not think that is Paulownia- it is a fast-growing tree with wider and not so sharp grain.

A few more words: when I heat the stick, I move it left-right-left above the heat plate, along the whole curve, rather fast, decelerating around the "hill" of the curve. After three-four passes, I check the temperature of the other side of the stick, When is hot, but not-too-hot, I start with pulling over the belly a few times and again with the heating. When the curve is slightly (SLIGHTLY) deeper than I would like to be at the end, I proceed to pulling over the belly, till the stick cools. Works for me. Disclaimer: I have never sold the bow re-cambered by myself, freshly re-haired and fully serviced for more that $100, so, if you deal with something more valuable, please, do not cite me as the source).

I am far from expert, but I finished the re-cambering of a few bows using 150 mm hot plate, trying to spread the deformation along the longer curve. As a mold, I use my own belly (disgracefully, but my belly has quite right profile ). During this operation, I wear the cotton shirt with the pocket on the chest, which serves as a storage for the frog (the hair is wrapped around the neck) and the skin on my belly serves as a temperature sensor - if it is too hot for me, than it is too hot for the bow too IMHO.

I did not

Luis, you know better than me that these archaic LEDs were too weak for any possible damage.

If one notices the patch very easily, than it is not very well repaired.

"Regular" is not the right word here, I'd say - for me, the regular one would be original inset saddle. This one is just more contemporary replacement. I second Mittenwald, but "Verleger"... something tells me that this one could be something else and that it should be properly appraised.

The saddle is later replacement, If I see well.

Any luthier (not only american) can sell the violin to you for more than 15000.

...and till the 60s there was no real LEDs in visible part of spectrum.

I would like to see how the LED from 1940 can damage the eye. Please, be serious.