Navyasw02

Anyone know if there's luggage storage somewhere? Looks like you can't store at the train station. Also do violin shops require reservations?

I'm taking a day trip to Create next month, any suggestions for places to go besides the violin museum? Any shops that are a must visit?

Yeah. Try putting that in the overhead bin on a flight...

I was thinking something even simpler - just swab your cheek and wipe some on a marked spot on the violin. 300 years later they can track down your ancestors and verify the legitimacy of your violin. Probably Amazon will be able to clone you a new body and you can download all your memories from Facebook by then anyway so your reincarnation can just personally vouch for its authenticity.

What micron(s) do you recommend?

Thanks all for the suggestions and PMs. Besides Hock tools anybody else have any recommendations for good tools vendors for getting the basics?

I went to the 2017 convention, but wasn't able to go to this years. I am moving overseas again so my time is up to build a relationship with a local maker after trying for the past year to find someone willing to work with me. I'll just start on my own and hopefully once I get something tangible folks would be more willing when I'm back in the States.

Basically yes, a few years from retirement and seeing if this is something I'd like to do full time and invest in going to violin making school.

Any recommendations for inexpensive mediocre tonewood suppliers? I've seen a lot of good ones on here, but nobody recommends less than the best usually.

Any recommendations for sharpening lessons? Good YouTube or websites? Thanks As for getting luthiers to help - Ive had a lot of enthusiastic responses, but no follow through.

Pretty easy - spend 20+ years in the military, move so many times you start running out of fingers, and defer a lot of dreams. There are a lot of positives that outweigh the negatives, but it is very much all encompassing of your life rather than a 9-5 job. I'm a jack of all trades former submarine officer turned engineer officer and diving and salvage officer and I do both acquisition and ship repair. If you want to learn how to run a nuclear reactor, drive a submarine, land a ship on blocks in the drydock, install cofferdams, do underwater hull inspections, salvage sunken ships and aircraft, recover grounded vessels, dive scuba and hard hat diving rigs, run dive chambers and do hyperbaric medicine, conduct submarine rescue operations, manage multi million dollar overhauls of ships, deliver new acquisitions, herd cats in both subordinates and management, make 17 revs of PowerPoint presentations changing small dog to puppy, babysit admirals, and make bilges and brightwork shine, I'm your guy.

Definitely not quitting my primary job yet, just easing into it. I have only a few more years until I'm retirement eligible.

Thanks for the suggestions. James and Emil - where do you recommend buying good tools? Based on your comments I'd think good tools are probably what I'd like, but not necessarily great or all encompassing. Is international violin a good dealer?

I'm in the DC area but moving to Japan in April.

After getting interested in violin making about a year ago, I'm looking to try making one to see if I enjoy the process enough to invest the time and money into going to school and pursue it as a second career. I have tried to get in with and learn under several different local makers with no success. At this point, I'm just going to try on my own. I bought the Johnson and Courtnall book and have read a lot of information online including lurking here, but I'm looking for suggestions to get started. A few questions in particular: 1. Are there any good videos worth getting? I'm debating getting the Peter Prier DVD, but don't want to spend that kind of money if it is not well received. Any other videos people recommend? 2. Basic tool kit- recommendations? I might just start with items listed in Johnson and Courtnall 3. Any makers do online based training or Skype type sessions? As active duty military, I am unable to attend workshops since I'm moving overseas in a few months. Any other recommendations for starting out? Thanks for the help.