
Whittler
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Fwiw, a long time ago I worked (in the financial industry) with a man near retirement age who was a former first-chair violinist with the Memphis Philharmonic Orchestra. He said that "All the pro violinists I know call their instruments a fiddle- never a violin", which I found interesting. He played a Stainer, and sold it and gave up playing altogether when his change of employment precluded the practice time necessary to stay in top form.
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Greetings Niko, There's a Nov. 7 post on page 4 of The Pegbox entitled Sharpening Woes. Toward the bottom, edi malinaric has posted a link showing some Sharpening jig variants. If you look at the very last example, by Anonymous, that's the general array I prefer- with some modifications. I have a thick polyethylene cutting board base which is a little longer than the full-length abrasive sheets I use. The width of the base is about 1/2 the length, for stability. I've routed a rectangular recess on top, about 3/8" / 10mm deep, dimensioned to hold my 1/2" / 12.5mm thick coffee-table glass pieces. I use 2 glass pieces, with different grit abrasive strips attached on both sides. I fit a thin (1/8" / 3mm) thick cork composite strip to line the bottom of the routed recess. This leaves the glass block protruding by about 1/2 it's thickness above the base board. The glass blocks are long enough to receive full-length abrasive strips, but only a little wider than my widest chisel- fairly narrow: about 2" / 5cm. wide. Instead of plastic skids, I use a stainless steel bolt for an axle, with ~ 1" /25mm diameter roller bearings on either side- like wheels. These ride in recessed grooves table-sawn into the base on either side of the glass block. This eliminates the flaw which imo is inherent to Eclipse-type jigs, where a wide single roller rides directly on the abrasive (possibly degrading it via pressure contact, and transferring loose grit from previous, coarser grit passes). I always clean the blade with a small piece of paper towel before progressing to the next finer grit, and also wipe the wetstone-like blocks and wrap them in clean paper towels when not in use. Your tool should be protruding at a 90° angle in relation to the jig axle. Some jigs have a little "fence" (like a table saw has) to keep the chisel square, but most do not. It's a simple matter to aligned the chisel properly using a small woodworkers' or machinists' square. This is very affordable and perfectly effective- hope you find it useful. w/ Very Best Regards
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You're most welcome, Nico; I have high hopes for your musical and lutherie evolution, and future life. The Imperial Lapping film is also available with diamond grit, but not in the finest grits, iirc. I've never found a need for it, but someone else might. The 3M film is all I've used since discovering it close to 20 years ago. With good steel and the methods described I can get a shaving edge very quickly, and it has good longevity, too. With the adhesive backing, it's simple and very effective wrapped around a wooden dowel for sharpening gouges, etc. Very Best Regards
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No sarcasm whatsoever intended on my part. The text, written after a long, tedious day replacing a water pump and some other items on my vehicle, is intended as an informal info-dump, not a paragraph- organized treatise. I typed it out as further possibly useful thoughts occurred to me, and hope the OP may find some of the info useful. If others consider my mono-bloc format tedious, they may easily choose to skip it, that's all. Very Best Regards
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Then you won't be troubled by the info contained therein- certainly your prerogative.
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Greetings Nicolas, You evidently have youth and intelligence on your side- also, congratulations on your impending marriage. With your church activities, job, studies, etc. you will need to manage your time and financial resources effectively to pursue your lutherie goals. I agree that learning proper repair work and set-ups would likely be the first logical step toward gaining some cash income while you progress toward building whole instruments. You are probably aware that the low and middle grade fiddle trade is largely dominated by Chinese companies which utilize CNC machinery, so ultimately you will have to build very fine violins if you wish to earn a decent living as a full-time instrument maker, if that's what you want to do. Agree that a diploma of some sort, or apprenticeship with a known highly-skillled luthier would be your best bet at learning the proper skills and presenting them to customers. You might seek out the better luthiers / legitimate repair experts either in your area or where you're able to travel, and inquire politely about visiting them. You may or may not find an apprenticeship this way, but you could also have some luck and at least get some advice and maybe be permitted to observe some of their work. If you don't mind the advice from a 60-year-old man, it's a good idea to bring a small, but high-quality gift if you're invited to meet a skilled luthier / expert repairer or bowmaker. This shows appreciation for their time, and the years of study and practice they've invested in their trade. Some wonderful, perfectly ripe fruit or especially good mate would probably be appreciated. Don't be too disparaging in the self-assessment of your playing skills. From your videos, you seem to have well-developed abilities overall, and a very nice vibrato technique. You're a much better fiddle player than I am- although I've been a guitarist for over 50 years, I'm very new to bowed instruments. Agree that it's always a good idea to study with better players, and continue improving. Hats off to you for your efforts in teaching children- very commendable. With regard to the heated wood marking tool described, it is called in English a branding iron (the same term used for the heated metal tool cowboys use for marking cattle). If you search for "woodworking branding iron" I think you will find companies that will make a brass logo for you, with your own specifications regarding print style and desired info, that is designed to screw onto a particular soldering iron- it has to be the correct thread, obviously. Then practice on scrap wood of the type you wish to mark, to get a precise effect. As mentioned by others, very good chisels can be made from any suitable (high quality) steel scrap: old files, saw blades, etc. For detail work, you can make excellent small chisels from a Bahco (I believe made in Brazil now * Edit: Portugal, actually- these scrapers are made of first-rate steel and should be avail. in Brazil very affordably, as they're inexpensive here in the U.S. The thicker one is .8 mm) or Two Cherries card scraper (using a thicker one, typically), by cutting it into the chosen width with a hacksaw, then filing the rough edges and polishing with progressively finer passes of silicon carbide sandpaper (called wet-or-dry here in the U.S.)- the black-colored type, which is available down to very fine grit. You can also use a Dremel-type rotary tool with a cut-off wheel (abrasive disc), but after marking the cut line with a fine felt-tip pen, you should make light, repetitive passes, keeping the wheel moving along rapidly (to avoid heating and ruining the tempered steel). Once you've cut most of the way through (I like to cut from both sides, carefully matching the pen lay-out lines so they precisely match), you can clamp the chisel part in a vise (cardboard on either side to protect the work from being harmed by the steel jaws), then flex the steel back-and-forth by hand and it will break at the cut. For optimum efficiency and ease of use, all cutting tools should be kept razor sharp. The very best method I've found also, fortunately, happens to be the cheapest: I strongly recommend that you research "Scary Sharp" sharpening method. All you need is some 1/2" / 12.5mm float glass (you can usually find cheap or free scrap cut-offs at a glass business that makes coffee tables, etc.). You can also use very flat, ground marble slab cut-offs. You can glue various grits of silicon carbide / wet-or-dry sandpaper to your flat surface using a light coating of spray adhesive (be careful to avoid trapping bubbles- start at one end and slowly press down while rubbing your finger lightly back-and-forth). If you can find it affordably where you are, the very best abrasive I've found is 3M Imperial Lapping Film with PSA backing (pressure sensitive adhesive)- very high quality, plastic film (not paper) sandpaper, available down to extremely fine grits for polishing a razor-sharp final edge, and already has a thin, even coat of adhesive. *The finest grits are made with aluminum oxide, not silicon carbide, but hone hard steel easily. For touching-up steel cutting edges you will mostly need only the 3 finest grits available- for rougher work you can use coarser grit SiC wet-or-dry paper, which is much cheaper. For maintaining a good, consistent angle you will need a good honing guide; a home-made one is not difficult to fabricate- you'll no doubt find suitable ideas online. I always draw-sharpen (pulling the chisel toward myself with the sharp edge pointed away, and handle facing me). This is how a trained sushi chef sharpens a blade. With coarser grits I use a little honing oil (I prefer butcher block oil, sold at home improvement / builders' supply stores for rubbing wooden kitchen cutting boards- it's the same thin mineral oil as baby oil, but without fragrance) to float away the steel filings and any dislodged grit particles (called swarf in English), but with the last 3 finest grits the 3M Lapping Film is used dry, with very light pressure and repetitive, even strokes. I like to use abrasive strips that are the full (long length) of the abrasive paper or plastic film, to achieve a longer stroke, and again, use 1 direction only (away from the sharp edge)- not back-and-forth. Using the 3M Film in this manner with good steel produces an edge so sharp that I don't believe it's possible to achieve any better. w/ Best Regards and Blessings
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P.S., If the athletic wrap, which is stretchy, doesn't provide a firm enough attachment, an over-wrap of one or more wide velcro straps might do. Also, if pull cutting isn't out of the question for the OP, I'd have to guess that a shoulder or kidney type harness, depending on preferred working height, used for big game fishing, might prove useful and effective. Would you rather, for example, row across the Atlantic using pushing motions w/ your tricep and chest muscles primarily, or pulling w/ larger back and leg muscles? Regards
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The OP has not elaborated in detail re. the actual physical limitations experienced, but some sort of rotary tool w/ ball-end burr would certainly appear to be the least physically demanding solution (not considering the noise, which I've mentioned I would find personally objectionable, but solvable). Again, a vacuum dust collector is generally employed- it would be simple to rig a collection hose to a shop-vac. Since arched-top instruments are cut to contours, something like the rotary flex-tool mentioned, or a 1-hp laminate trimmer (which are loud as hell) mounted in a fairly thick / rigid sheet of clear Plexiglas or similar material, of sufficient size to lie flat on a depth-control frame surrounding the work, would seem ideal for low-strain roughing: just set router depth and stay between the contour lines. This is a pretty common set-up people use for mechanized contour carving. For finish carving, a long-handled (push) gouge, as utilized by Mr. Burgess and others, could be fitted to a sawn-off crutch pad, perhaps, if you're used to push cutting. Besides modified Japanese-type pull planes, it also seems possible that a good scorp could be employed effectively (maybe fitted to a long handle for two-handed use), or one of usual length w/ a bulbous grip end might be firmly secured by over-wrapping the gripping hand w/ athletic tape (the kind that holds to itself by friction, not adhesive). If you carve while standing (with the work secured around waist level or somewhat higher, according to your tools and methodology), and keep the tool-holding side's elbow tucked in near your ribs, plenty of force can be generated for a good carving stroke by utilizing legs, rotational waist torque, and body weight for downward pressure via the non-dominant hand, w/ very little strain on hand / forearm. Hope this helps, and wish you continued adaptive fine craftsmanship, tartarine.
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The guy with the angle grinder / Kutzall rig was carving large sculptures for the tourist trade- I'm not in any way suggesting this would benefit the OP. A flex-carving rig w/ much smaller Kutzall burr as described, would, I think, be virtually vibrationless and easily controllable in use. Japanese type pull-planes might be modified / adapted by fitting some sort of wrist strap to take the pressure away from the guiding hand, for finish carving. Hope this maybe helps.
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Many of the commercial wood carvers in my area of Oregon use Kutzall burrs for high-volume production carving. I've observed one fellow using a large convex disc / mushroom type cutting head attached to a high rpm angle grinder, and it really hogs off the material, as one might expect. The process looked very efficient and controllable, with dust clearing easily into a vacuum collector. Makes a hell of a racket (the guy wears industrial ear muff type hearing protection), and of course a high-rpm burr could be dangerous if mishandled even for a split second. If I were in your position I'd probably look into one of those flex-shaft cutting tools (like many wooden duck decoy carvers use) w/ a Kutzall burr head installed, and try to find a way to couple it to a quieter DC motor, if possible. Regards
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W/ re. to the member who previously posted about making bamboo / "cane" bows in Japan, madake (a native bamboo of Japan, traditionally used over centuries for archery bows there) is said to be a little lower in modulus (Young's) compared to Chinese "tea stick" bamboo, but clearly has plenty of stiffness-per-mass to make fine musical bows. It is also used in Japan for making traditional fishing rods.
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A little disclaimer: I'm not a fiddle repairer, and don't really intend to become one. In fact, I'm quite new to bowed instrument lutherie, but have always really liked them. Those would be my likely thoughts for a guitar repair similar to what's described. Hope that repair goes well.
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There are E. Asian instruments which traditionally use bows made from whole slender bamboo stalks, much as you describe, Marty. Agree, nature's designs are incomparable. Just for one example out of a zillion: the fiddle-head scroll, derived from the naturally graceful fern shoot, wherein, like a nautilus shell and too many other instances to name, the Golden Mean is expressed. Though some are remarkably good (or even astoundingly good) at whittling them up into fiddles and such, no luthier will ever make a tree.
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No, the split "cane" / bamboo pieces were not rotated- they're in the normal rind-outward orientation. Those grain striations are showing because an excessive amount of the outermost rind was removed. This typically is caused by flat scraping / block-sanding of an inherently curved surface. Better grade rods are not flat faceted- the facets retain their natural sl. curvature, and larger diameter whole bamboo culms are generally preferred as raw material, since they yield flatter split strips to begin with. The usual heat tempering process (generally done early on, before tapering of the splines and glue-up) will tend to sl. flatten this curvature further. The rest of this post is quite correct- optimally, as little of the outer enamel as possible is removed, and striated appearance should be minimal. Node work should be neat and rel. small. Starting with good raw material (culms having small nodal dams, not big "knobby-kneed" ones) helps a lot in this regard. Any balance problems with bamboo bows would be entirely due to design flaws, and certainly not inherent to the material, which imo is superbly suited to this application.