Dominik Tomasek Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Dear Maestronetters, I am having a fairly nice spruce stored in my workshop. Unfortunately this piece is not long enough to make a 38cm viola which was planned to be made from this wood. Some 4cm are missing. I know it is quite common to extend wood widthwise but here I was thinking about extending the wood lenghtwise. How good idea could that be? To be honest, I am not sure about the wood's acoustic characteristics and mainly it's stability after this process. Any ideas someone? Thanks in advance. Dominik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luthier Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Make a violin instead. You should pick up a new piece of spruce for your viola. Assuming you will need a little bit of overage in the length, you'll never be able to hide the graft. no matter how hard you try. It's just not worth the effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominik Tomasek Posted August 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Thank you for your reply! Unfortunately even for a violin this piece is too small. The good side of this is that the instrument made from this wood is meant to be mine, not to be sold. Thus it is not actually about hiding the graft, it is mainly about acoustic and other characteristic of such plate. The wood is wide enough to split into 4 pieces which means that joining and matching the grain would not be a problem. I am although quite unsure about what would the string pressure do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Allen Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Well if you're planning on going end grain to end grain then that's a fool's errand. But you might be able to get away with a scarf joint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Burgess Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Do you have a woodstretcher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Coleman Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Coleman Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 On 8/22/2018 at 8:01 AM, Dominik Tomasek said: Dear Maestronetters, I am having a fairly nice spruce stored in my workshop. Unfortunately this piece is not long enough to make a 38cm viola which was planned to be made from this wood. Some 4cm are missing. I know it is quite common to extend wood widthwise but here I was thinking about extending the wood lenghtwise. How good idea could that be? To be honest, I am not sure about the wood's acoustic characteristics and mainly it's stability after this process. Any ideas someone? Thanks in advance. Dominik Excuse my other post. It's a bad joke. I think @luthier has your answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chungviolins Posted August 24, 2018 Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 How long is the board lengthwise? If it is 350mm, you can make a full size violin, about 353-4mm. Neck set cutout and saddle cut out can make up about 2 mm shortage on your wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominik Tomasek Posted August 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 2 hours ago, chungviolins said: How long is the board lengthwise? If it is 350mm, you can make a full size violin, about 353-4mm. Neck set cutout and saddle cut out can make up about 2 mm shortage on your wood. The board is about 34 cm long thus way too short even for a 4/4 violin... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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