Nick Allen

I think my scroll profiles are getting better these days. I'm happy with this one. It's sister looks almost identical.

You can never have enough. When I worked in furniture repair, we would sometimes run out of clamps at noon and just go home because what else can you do after that. When I finish my cello form, I'm gonna double it up like that too, but I'll just use drywall screws in lieu of clamps for the glue.

Me too. There seems to be some notion of making things harder than they need to be sometimes for the sake of showcasing skill or historical reenactment.

I only use like 3 for violin and viola. But depending on the style of scroll you may need more. Strad style scrolls seem to want more variety with all of the different radii needed to be carved. I wouldn't be surprised if DG used like one gouge to do the whole job, though.

I guess I just cut some wood to test it. If it cuts nice, then it's sharp. But that's just what works for me.

Is it set into the body in any way? If so, I'd leave it. If not, I'd use a stainless steel screw or two.

Highly flamed ribs are indeed easier to bend, albeit more tricky because they tend to crinkle, in a kind of way. Also, they're at risk of breaking rather easily. One thing I learned was that you can't soak them for too long. This is my ideal for rib flame, personally:

You're trying to access a 10 year old link.

I've never had a huge problem with bending ribs and having them break. As long as they're the right thickness, and you have a decent iron, it's not that hard of a process to do without destroying things. Admittedly, I've cracked 1 or 2, but that was a lesson learned in bending extremely highly flamed stock, where a section of the rib was actual endgrain it was so flamed. But the second rib looks like it's sawn in the right orientation. So I'd go with that one.

I find that that way of testing sharpness to be very unreliable. If there is high humidity about, or you are sweating, you could shave your arm hair with a spoiled cucumber just about as easily.

To my knowledge, it was a pretty involved affair.

We're honestly all responsible.

We had an Aegidius Kloz with a top we made for it. It was acquired for a pittance. Ended up sounding really nice.

I second Addis. I have 2 that I use for most of the scroll.

The iron itself could be useful. You could make your own electric version with heating elements bored into it. The tang cut off of course. Beats the Gewa model that costs like $1000.