Guarneri 4 String Fiddle...

[Anthony Panke]

I forced my linings in until recently, and found it very hard to glue them in. In some ways it is better to get them done quickly (still avoiding buzzes etc) and not to worry about accuracy. I like the neat look a lot though, and that’s what I’m aiming for.

[Davide Sora]

53 minutes ago, lpr5184 said:

Davide, your interior wood has very nice color. Is this just UV tanning too?

Not much UV tanning on the inside, maybe a few dozen hours, but the maple was quite old (1988) and this helps a lot with color .  The willow has a really beautiful color that match very well with maple, I confess it's one of the reasons that pushed me to use it....

Casein is also already applied,  which darkens the color a little and increases its saturation,  the instrument is a viola I made in 2015, just before closing the box.

[Ernest Martel]

Another question Davide. I recently purchased a maple back from a guy who said he bought it from Rivolta when he was there in 2000. Can you verify if this mark is actually a Rivolta brand?

[Bill Yacey]

On 4/21/2019 at 9:40 PM, lpr5184 said:

Ignore the size of the blocks...my old camera distorts everything.The U&L blocks are not nearly that big. I need to trash this old point and shoot camera.  To get an idea of just how much distortion just look at the difference in the upper and lower closing clamps.

I thought your pics look pretty good.

I think I might need to upgrade too, as it's getting harder and harder to find film for my Kodak Brownie camera.

The fiddle looks like it's coming along nicely Ernie!

[Ernest Martel]

20 minutes ago, Bill Yacey said:

I thought your pics look pretty good.

I think I might need to upgrade too, as it's getting harder and harder to find film for my Kodak Brownie camera.

...They don't makem' like that anymore...my younger sister had one back in the day.

[Ernest Martel]

I guess Davide went to bed...

One last question I've been meaning to ask him for some time now...Davide, How do you do it?...I mean being Italian and surrounded by all the fine cuisine. What is your secret for staying so slim and fit?...Is it genetics or another Italian secret?...you are truly blessed.

 

[Davide Sora]

3 hours ago, lpr5184 said:

Another question Davide. I recently purchased a maple back from a guy who said he bought it from Rivolta when he was there in 2000. Can you verify if this mark is actually a Rivolta brand?

I don't know, it's not on Rivolta's wood that I bought, The brand look Chinese, but maybe it was put after the purchase or for some other reason, who knows.

 

 

3 hours ago, lpr5184 said:

I guess Davide went to bed...

One last question I've been meaning to ask him for some time now...Davide, How do you do it?...I mean being Italian and surrounded by all the fine cuisine. What is your secret for staying so slim and fit?...Is it genetics or another Italian secret?...you are truly blessed.

  Just at dinner, it's early for the bed.....  I think I have to thank genetics, but also an insane love for rock climbing since childhood, which continues on an ongoing basis today (well, in recent years the climbing activity has dropped a little but not exhausted). Perhaps the real secret is that I live in a house on three floors without a lift (the workshop on the ground floor), lots of stairs.

 

[Ernest Martel]

You definitely have a rock climbers physique...and all those stairs.....my knees hurt just thinking about it. 

[Salve Håkedal]

On 4/23/2019 at 6:54 PM, Davide Sora said:

...

The willow has a really beautiful color that match very well with maple, I confess it's one of the reasons that pushed me to use it

...

 

Yess. When I started making I felled a "lind" (Tília cordata), which smells lovely, is light and cuts well. But is plain white. Then finally, after 30+ years I tried something else: "selje" (Salix caprea) from my firewood pile. Upper right corner.. My inside work is rougher than Davides. But color is nice!

[Ernest Martel]

That is nice Salve... I have used local red alder as an alternative for linings. Alderwood is also my favorite for smoking salmon.

[Ernest Martel]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:24 AM, lpr5184 said:

Another question Davide. I recently purchased a maple back from a guy who said he bought it from Rivolta when he was there in 2000. Can you verify if this mark is actually a Rivolta brand?

 

On 4/23/2019 at 2:23 PM, Davide Sora said:

I don't know, it's not on Rivolta's wood that I bought, The brand look Chinese, but maybe it was put after the purchase or for some other reason, who knows.

Davide,

I heard back from the seller about this piece of wood. He is indeed Chinese and told me that the mark is his family name which he stamped on all his wood. He told me he lived in Cremona in 1999. He traveled to Rivolta's mill and bought this piece of wood from them. He thinks Rivolta started using the brand that you posted after 2000'. He told me he is not in the violinmaking business any longer. I noticed over time he has sold many used high quality /name brand tools you would expect a maker to own. He also offered to buy back the wood if I was unhappy with it and to me that says a lot. I told him I liked the wood and I only inquired to reassure the next buyer of it's origin in case I end up selling it in the future. 

[Ernest Martel]

I also bought a supply of willow from Rivolta. I hope it's as nice as yours. Thanks for revealing the source.

[Davide Sora]

 

2 hours ago, lpr5184 said:

 

Davide,

I heard back from the seller about this piece of wood. He is indeed Chinese and told me that the mark is his family name which he stamped on all his wood. He told me he lived in Cremona in 1999. He traveled to Rivolta's mill and bought this piece of wood from them. He thinks Rivolta started using the brand that you posted after 2000'. He told me he is not in the violinmaking business any longer. I noticed over time he has sold many used high quality /name brand tools you would expect a maker to own. He also offered to buy back the wood if I was unhappy with it and to me that says a lot. I told him I liked the wood and I only inquired to reassure the next buyer of it's origin in case I end up selling it in the future. 

This may be true, I really can't say because the oldest wood I have from Rivolta dates back to 2001, and the brand celebrates the centenary of the company. This is on a piece of spruce of 2000 (stamp on the piece by Rivolta that says 04/2000) I bought In 2001 at Mondomusica.

[Ernest Martel]

On 4/23/2019 at 3:59 AM, Davide Sora said:

I bought the willow a "few" years ago from Rivolta, in Mondomusica, he still sells it but surely not the same tree...... https://www.riwoods.com/list.aspx?s=1&ss=1&c=5

 I bought the 450x110x45 pieces, do not have an extremely low density like Don's spruce but it is still quite light (0.38/0.40 range) and it cuts more easily than spruce. Ideal for top and bottom blocks that need some strength, for corner blocks Don's solution may be a good idea to save weigth, but such a low density (0.29 is really low) gives me some concern about the excessive absorption during gluing and glue sizing, that would absorb a lot of glue.

The Rivolta willow arrived today. Two days from Milan to Seattle!  The grain spacing is wider than I expected but still nice.... and light.

 

[Davide Sora]

45 minutes ago, lpr5184 said:

The Rivolta willow arrived today. Two days from Milan to Seattle!  The grain spacing is wider than I expected but still nice.... and light.

The grain does not seem too wide to me ( consider that it is a lowland tree that usually grows near water), then in the willow this does not make a big difference as in the spruce.  It's the beauty of the willow, there's no need to worry too much about the orientation of the grain, even in Stradivaris it is often oriented in all random directions including the tangential, he didn't care too much because there is no real difference between early and late wood and it is all very homogeneous. Just be careful with the split direction that sometimes can be a little twisted and should be avoided especially for neck blocks if you don't want to suffer too much by cutting the mortise

PS: In any case if possible I put the grain with the correct orientation, but rather than wasting wood I use it anyway even with "wrong" grain orientation, just to be more authentic

[Ernest Martel]

Thanks Davide. 

[Ernest Martel]

Top arch getting closer, purfling in, and f holes laid out

 

 

 

[Anthony Panke]

Lovely clean work. 

Those f holes are nice, nicer than the vieuxtemps in my opinion. Are they even the same?

[jezzupe]

wow,looks great

[Ernest Martel]

5 minutes ago, Anthony Panke said:

Lovely clean work. 

Those f holes are nice, nicer than the vieuxtemps in my opinion. Are they even the same?

Thanks Anthony,

The f holes are not really the same.... just a modern rendition.

[Ernest Martel]

1 minute ago, jezzupe said:

wow,looks great

Thanks Jezz

[MikeC]

Looking good !    you need to make videos like Davide Sora    

[Ernest Martel]

27 minutes ago, MikeC said:

Looking good !    you need to make videos like Davide Sora    

Don't want to make him look bad!......Whaaat?

...insert...

Edited May 7 by lpr5184
him to make me,...look bad

[MikeC]

44 minutes ago, lpr5184 said:

Don't want to make him look bad!......Whaaat?

...insert...

LOL   

You both do awesome work,   I envy your arch carving skills!  

 

[catnip]

Very clean work...  your attention to detail is inspiring.