ernym

Wow, This is some hard maple. Now I'm wondering if this is bigleaf or another species. The figure looks alot like red maple when cut on the slab but the hardness is more like sugar maple which can grow here in the PNW but is not a native tree. It's definitely gonna take awhile to carve this one.

Very Sad. Having family in Weiser, ID I've seen and heard his fiddles, both 4 and 5 string played by pro's at the Weiser contest. They look and sound amazing, a great loss to the fiddle community.

In my experience with terpene solvent the gold color is from the resin, at least in the terpene varnish that I made years ago. I haven't experimented much with Don'r resin but hope it will bring some much needed gold color in the dark wood that I'm currently using.

Finally have the plate thickness down to 19mm in the center, the outline established and ready for the carving cradle. Not sure if I'm ready though.

When mixing the water/glue ratios I've always used Eugene's chart, measured with a digital scale. and never had any failures. The chart and much more info can be found in his article "40 Centuries and Holding". EDIT: I should note the mixing ratio's in the chart are for full strength mixes, I've adjusted and written down the ratio's for different applications. I do use a full strength mix on center joints.

I've always used Bjorn 192 & 315 HC. Twenty years and Still Holding... 40 Centuries and Still Holding.pdf

Both are very nice, what's interesting to me is the difference in the arching between the two. I'd like to hear them played. Don I still have some of your turpene resin that you gave me some time ago. I'll be experimenting with that soon. I always like the color that it brings to darker wood.

The back plate is thick and my bandsaw is too small to saw it down so it's going to be alot of work. It's cupped over the last twenty years but I've been watching it and it seems stable now. Alot of gouge work ahead and it's going to put my recent shoulder and wrist surgeries to the test. The LN 62 toothed blade is working well on this quilt with no tearout.

That was John Masters

Hi Sean, You don't have to steal the design because I'll give it to you, lol. It works really well with plenty of string clearance. When bending ribs I use a stainless steel bending strap and take my time. This highly figured maple is 20 years old and so I added some glycerin to the water just in case. Years ago when I joined MN and built my first fiddle a bunch of us did a group purfling buy from Karen Rost, I still have plenty of that purfling. I add a little glycerin to the water before wetting and it seems to help keep it from breaking. You should have seen my first scroll, it was atrocious and not even usable. Buying a good scroll gouge set helped me to improve alot but like you scroll carving is not my favorite thing to do. Here's a pic of the scroll template: The neck dimensions are the same as a 4/4 violin. The pegbox is a little longer to accommodate the 5th string but you can adjust that to a 4 string.

It's not the traditional look but that's not the objective. All the wood in the fiddle was harvested from the PNW, Pacific Northwest, except for the top. I'm keeping that Italiano, Big Leaf maple (Whale Bay Woods), Sitka spruce blocks and bassbar (Orcas Island Tonewood), Red Alder linings (Whidbey Island, WA).

A litle further today.

I found this piece after searching through a mountain of wood at The Wood Well. It was the ony piece that had this kind of grain. The ribs are quarter sawn and have bubble quilt on the slab side. Very unusual and it's not soft like some big leaf maple.