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Dave Slight's Bench


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Thank you for your kind words Stephan, they are much appreciated. 

It can be easy to get really carried away with antiquing, with the range of techniques and methods one can choose.
My aim with these, is to give the appearance of an older instrument, but one which has been looked after. Rather than one which looks like it was involved in a shipwreck, then kept in a chimney for a year :lol:

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Dave, I admire both your varnishing and your woodwork. However,  here, I feel there is a discrepancy between the crispness of the latter and the result of the antiquing of the former. I find it doesn't convince without some wear to the edgework, f holes etc etc. Of course,  this is a matter of taste, but regarding newly made ones, I prefer crisp new instruments or antiquing that goes a little further than yours. For me as a buyer, this looks not so convincing. This is highly subjective of course, and in no way intended negatively!

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You are right, all antiquing can look contrived. 

I could have snapped off the belly edges and corners, attacked the back of the scroll with a rasp, bushed the peg holes, done a neck graft, made some half edging before gluing on the top.
Decisions have to be made along the way, and the decision I take these days, is to try and give a look of an older instrument, but one that has been looked after. Not necessarily to look over 300 years old.

Over the course of my career, I’ve approached making antiqued instruments in different ways. There was a time, when I was taking the outlines of both the top and back, then making an angled mould, so I could recreate the rib and corner angles.
While accurate to the original, I felt these really did look quite unconvincing and forced.

As with every maker, my style has evolved, but I would also say each instrument is it’s own work. What I did this time, may be different to the next.

Despite taking models from the past, I currently like to work in a clean and neat manner. In addition to the old Italian makers, I admire a lot of the Parisian instruments, especially Lupot, Vuillaume, Bernardel etc.

Inspiration comes in many forms.

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On 12/19/2023 at 6:05 PM, Andrew tkinson said:

Hello Dave, that seems a much better idea than putting rattlesnake tails in your violin!

Perhaps higher arched violins were designed to hold a small Christmas pudding, pinned securely in place with a dorsal sprig of holly ?

Seasons greetings from Gateshead!

Hello Andrew,

I’m not sure I’d want to mess with rattlesnakes, but here, I guess the best we could do, would be to use an Adder or a grass snake. Since they have no rattle, it would be a fruitless endeavour!

I think some high arched violins were used to smuggle haggis over the border. This would have been back in the days of the Reivers, or during the years of offal prohibition, while the Shortbread wars raged.

I will be passing Gateshead in the coming days.

Best wishes for Christmas, and beyond!

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