GerardM

It’s not difficult to sharpen incannel gouges. A slip stone and oil does the trick. Just be careful not rocking the slip stone. I have several sizes, very handy when cutting veneer to fit curved patterns on marquetry table tops etc. Also very useful for corner blocks.

Jacob are makers free to design corners that appeal to themselves?

It will be sealing the wood. But as Fiddle Doug says the sealer/ground can often change the colour of the wood so may as well do the whole instrument while your at it. Thank you everyone for the response to my question. As a side to this, will be making a start on my none crash bang wallop violin soon. I will post pictures.

How differently would you seal the maple?

The outside

Hello everyone probably an academic question however. Would it matter if only the top of the instrument was sealed? I would say that you may as well seal everything while your at it. But for the purposes of discussion the maple does not soak up stain or varnish at the same rate as spruce, so would not sealing the back and ribs be detrimental in any way?

It depends on the species of timber. Lignum vitae along with Ebony are very dense timbers at the other end of the scale is Balsa wood.

Thank you Jim I have just ordered the Brian Derber book. I already have the Johnson and Courtnall book. So I would imagine between the two of these books I will have every piece of information I need to construct a violin. Thank you again for the reply to my question take care G

What is everyone’s favourite fiddle making book.

I’ve just found that this topic has been mentioned here before so apologies for going over old ground. Thanks anyway G

Hello everyone I have been given the above book, and was curious to know if anyone has read it and what they thought of the content. It is available free online, however a member of the family discovered it amongst a job lot of books and thought it might be of use to me. Thank you in advance G

Rachel search on YouTube for Men in Sheds there’s a chap making fiddles in his tiny garden shed.

Thank you all for the feedback.

Do we know what an original Stradivarius sounded like? The messiah violin is that still in the same condition as when Stradivarius finished it? We’re the instruments original graduations altered when the necks were reset. Just curious when I hear people talk about the sound of Stradivarius and if he came back would he recognises the sound of his violins. Thanks G