Mike Atkins

Thank you both!

A bit better image

Well I did a particularly awful job doing all of the setup things. Chipped the varnish trying to figure out how to set the soundpost which I found to be incredibly difficult... we'll see if I can touch that up. Still have to shorten the pegs which I probably made too short already. But, it's basically done, and the violin does actually make sounds. It didn't self destruct when I started tightening the strings... I still have to get it fully up to pitch and run a bow across them. I'm not sure what's up with the coiled E string... I haven't seen that before but I'm guessing it will straighten itself out. On to the next one. Hopefully that won't take several years.

Very nice work Mike!

It's a good point about how the arching slope changes the effective grain angle and local stiffness. On the Tuscan, the bass side is off-quarter, so that gradient would be asymmetric. I’ve been more curious about what Stradivari determined was necessary in response. Comparing to other instruments it seems from what I can tell, like there were other possible compensations. It’s hard to know exactly what he was thinking, but I've been wondering if the instrument as a whole can provide more clues.

I’ve been studying the 1690 “Tuscan” Stradivari in detail from the CT scans in Treasures of Italian Violin Making Vol. II. The bass-side spruce on that instrument is noticeably off-quarter. I’ve been wondering whether that could have influenced other design choices on the violin. Some things seem less than typical from what I can tell, but I don't have enough experience to confirm that. It might be a relevant instrument to look at, that book has a ton of information.

I bought a big batch of stalks from Etsy, I don't remember the exact seller, but I think I have enough for a lifetime now...and it was about $15.

It's amazing how your videos always seem to coincide with what I'm trying to do at the moment...like fitting the bridge for my violin. It's also amazing how effortless you make it look while I'm struggling with every single step.

Buying a larger billet is a good move I think, but really what you're seeing is fairly rare I think. Cutting a bass bar from the thick end gives you a chance to check how it splits too, before you cut it. You can also buy split wood, which is going to be even more expensive...of course. You're right it's a learning experience, and a humbling one...notes are good because there are about 1,000 things that I didn't get until after making mistakes!

I have the same issue on my violin, the "harlequin" effect...it's the result of cutting and not splitting the wood where the fibers of the wood (not grain) deviates from straight I guess...like a twist in the tree for example. I'm not sure it really causes a major issue more than a visual one, but I could be wrong about that. Split wood likely won't have that problem, or buying a billet large enough where you can cut off a bass bar and split it to see if it should be cut at an angle (separately from the quarter sawn consideration). Not sure if I'm articulating that well. You could also flip one half of the billet 180° or end for end before jointing, that might help. A larger billet (like viola wood) could give you room to adjust too.

I'm done with the varnishing, but still have to do the final polishing. I think it's probably best though to make sure the varnish is fully cured first, which may take about a week or so. Then I'll need to blend the varnish into the neck I guess, which after scraping and sanding a bit I realized I should have been more careful during varnishing rather than assuming I could sand it back without messing with the varnish I want to keep there. Then I'll be gluing on the fingerboard, and scraping varnish off of the saddle. I'm not sure if it's preferable to cut in the saddle before or after varnishing...but I suppose it's probably safer to do it before and not risk damaging the varnish.

I think I've got the color as dark as I'm going to get it, maybe one last thin layer then polishing and final clear coats. Overall I didn't do a great job of it, but I do feel like I learned quite a bit about varnishing just by doing it...so that's not so bad.

Like everything else violin-making related...varnishing seems difficult, and something I guess takes practice and experience. I had done a poor job, then basically removed a lot of the color layers and started over and it's finally getting close to being full color intensity. I still have some blotchiness to fix on the top, which I think I'm learning how to do, but this violin isn't great by any measure, so like most things I'll chalk it up as a learning experience. I keep saying "the next violin will be better"...so I'm really putting a lot of pressure on myself for the next one...

Slowly but surely the color is building up, I'm using quite thin color layers. But I can see that the top and the back are looking quite different from one another...I'm not sure if that's something I need to figure out how to solve with the ground though...we'll see how it looks when it's done. Also there's still some slight blotchiness on the top, but hopefully that's something I can correct. It's probably not from absorption as the wood was very well sealed before the color, it's just my poor/inexperienced application process. I think I just need to do a round of touching up rather than just expecting it to even out with more layers of varnish. It's really taking a lot of time to apply, dry, level when needed, then do another layer. At some point it will have to be done though.

I spent a ton of time leveling the varnish with pumice...there's still a bit of blotchiness but hopefully if I can build it up more evenly moving forward it can be corrected. I also think part of my issue was not mixing it up fresh (color + clear + turpentine), and perhaps not cleaning the brushes well enough...so hopefully those things will help.