Egidio Santos Posted September 1, 2018 Report Share Posted September 1, 2018 Hello guys, first topic in this forum so here's a quick introduction: I'm Brazilian, living in Munich, and for many years i've been meddling with small instrument repairs, fittings bridges etc. Recently i've decided to take things a little bit more serious and started putting pieces together for a personal workshop. For a few months i've been doing setup and restoration for a few instruments and have a couple violins on the way of my own making Now back to business: I've just come into possession of a Schuster & CO violin that had the top NAILED to the lower block, which resulted in a partial crack and a small gap in the ribs... First... What!? Why would you do that? Would be just a mindless repair? Second: What would be the best way to fix it? I was thinking of completely remove the block and glue it back with a spline to prevent opening again, then gluing the ribs back... Is there a better way? Should i also use some filler for the hole? The instrument looks in general older than the average Markneukirchen and definitely has much better construction with full corner blocks and some interesting full linings. Unfortunately someone tried unsuccessfully to remove the label and now the part with the year is missing. Have more pictures if anybody is interested Thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane88 Posted September 3, 2018 Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 That is a normal pin used in the construction of a violin. Some makers use a round pin, but some use a squarish nail made from wood. They can cause cracks. In my own making I place the pin so that the neck joint and the saddle cut the pin away. At school, we used the pins for construction, but cut them off before attaching the top. In this situation, I would repair the crack in the block and not reinsert the pin, perhaps placing a dummy pin in the top to fill the hole, or as I sometimes do, fill it with deft of some other filler after putting the top back on the instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egidio Santos Posted September 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 2 hours ago, duane88 said: That is a normal pin used in the construction of a violin. Some makers use a round pin, but some use a squarish nail made from wood. They can cause cracks. In my own making I place the pin so that the neck joint and the saddle cut the pin away. At school, we used the pins for construction, but cut them off before attaching the top. In this situation, I would repair the crack in the block and not reinsert the pin, perhaps placing a dummy pin in the top to fill the hole, or as I sometimes do, fill it with deft of some other filler after putting the top back on the instrument. Thanks for the answer. Except for the neck i did not heard of these pins before. I realized that this is quite controversial topic with many theories on why they were used... In your case, why is it used? Does it have a connection with the type of mould? Also, I'll leave this link here in connection to another post on this topic: Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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