Nick Allen

That's a pretty neat rib bending method there. I think, just personally, that when viewing the development of classical violin design, Occam's Razor is particularly relevant.

I'm quite interested in this, as someone who has made things harder for themselves in the past and encountered many repairs where this would have been nice.

This looks too nice to be a Marchetti.

Let's pour one out for this man....

I like this approach. The lazy method often prevails in industry. I've always just kind of figured that old violin makers arrived at a shape that is generally pleasing to the eye and I also kind of wonder if they shared their wooden forms and just had a buddy over for wine and dinner and he brought his forms and they just traced them and made new ones, perhaps slightly modifying them in one aspect or another. I mean, we kind of just do that nowadays. Efforts to find some answers in the design seem like a lot of wishful reverse engineering at times. And every time we seem to come up with "the system", it always has to be fudged to actually reflect real world examples anyways.

A small bit of self-delusion is one of the secret sauces that will keep mediocrity at bay and elevate oneself towards their vision.

Hey there. If anyone here can identify this A string for violin. It's steel core, and looks to be a Larsen variety. But I can't tell the variant, though... Any help would be appreciated here! Thanks!

It's a super easy varnish to make and apply. Foolproof, really. Simple ingredients, simple prep, simple execution. The only thing that's a drag about it is that it does not antique very easily. Not very responsive to alcohol. So if you're planning on antiquing, I'd change the ratios of oil and resin. In the bass book, he uses a paper towel flooded with alcohol to get the mottled, chippy look. It works really well, if that's what you're going for. But the varnish does not shade very well at all. It tends to stay as it is while you polish, and then eventually just kind of crumble away in full thickness in little rubbery gloobs. I suppose you could be much more patient, and hit it with alcohol in much smaller intervals over several days, but I'm not patient enough for that. Fantastic varnish, though. I usually recommend making it to newer makers because of its simplicity in all aspects and efficacy as well.

This looks kind of similar to the checking that you see on guitars finished with nitrocellulose.

That's another good one that I'll have to try. Why does this sub have such a weird aversion to bench copying techniques?

Guys, if we don't get the discussion back on track, I'm going to have to resort to using my own bodily secretions soon.

You may be right. I'm starting to think that it's a combo of Jacob's hypothesis and Alpert's as well? Here's a violin that's beginning that journey naturally.

Yeah. Sweat does do that to the wood. If it's mostly just sweat. I have JOHA Imitor, which acts like artificial sweat, more or less for antiquing. Also, iron (ii) sulphate does a pretty good job of discoloring wood to a nice grey color.

I like to use hide glue while cutting them. It sizes the grain and reduces the "cartoon cloud" effect that one tends to get without it. So mine are sealed from that process anyways. Once I ground and varnish the instrument, there is usually enough residual ground and varnish coats that overflow onto the edges of the f holes anyways. Once I'm done with the antiquing that I usually do, I just retouch the inner edges with shellac retouch varnish and pigments. You can do the same for new making. Just don't use straight black for that step. It looks bad.