Looked at the violin belly. The results arent spectacular, but arent the worse that could happen. The color is for the most part, even, with a few dark blotchy patches showing very slightly. I am sanding the surface with 320 grit sandpaper, then will sand again with 600 grit to smooth the surface. Then I will put a final coat of color over the top after sanding is done. When the stain dries after a week, then I will put 2 very thin coats of shellac over it to seal the stain permanently. Afterward, its a long slow process of polishing and bringing out the final shine to accent and show off the color of the finished piece. In the positive, I concealed the damaged areas pretty well and managed to repair a few deep gouges in the surface. Actually, the belly was a bit too thick anyway, so I sanded most of the gouges and pits away, leaving only a hint that they were ever there. The remainder was filled in with stain and are now invisible. All that is left is to finish sanding, put the final color on, and varnish. Once those steps are complete, it will be time to reattach the belly to the violin body. The proof is in the pudding, to use an old adage. How it sounds after the repairs are finally completed remains to be seen. The inner belly surface was mottled with machine tool marks that had to be sanded away and smoothed. This made the belly even thinner, and allowed me to remove the mess from the inside that I made while I was recoloring and staining the belly top. I also removed glue that had saturated the bass bar. That should help improve the acoustic tonal quality of the wood, and I also carved excess glue away from the inside of the belly. The gluing job was pretty sloppy, so I cleaned it up. Hopefully this will improve how the instrument sounds after its reassembled and refitted with new pegs and string. I am still planning on buying a cheap bow, or at least a decent used one so that I can start teaching me how to play a little. The internet has so many wonderful things, including basic and beginning violin lessons for the ones who want to learn, but are too old, too broke or too cheap to pay for expert lessons. Im not too cheap, but I am broke and probably too old, but hey! I am growing more excited seeing the violin belly take shape and anxious to reassemble the violin. It will cost me to have it re-pegged because one of the pegs was lost somehow. Im ordering an inexpensive set from online and will take them and the violin back to the store where I got it from for peg refit, and final reassembly. Ill have one of the shop workers test play it to see how it sounds. I found some valuable information that will allow me to make a violin body mould for instrument assembly, and I found detailed technical drawings for violin making. There is enough information for me to start putting things together and I can actually start making a serious attempt to make a violin from beginning to end. I will need to improvise for some of the tools, and I have some great ideas for creating and making some of the makeshift tools that I will need, especially the bending iron for the lower and upper bouts and the C-ribs. I have 2 pieces of hardwood suitable for making the violin scroll necks, and I know where to get some ebony wood to make the finger board. The rest of the stuff can be ordered, like the tailpiece, the tail gut, and tail peg. I can also order violin bridges unfinished, and I can also order more violin pegs and most important of all, the voice of the violin, the strings. I am going to use some of my red cedar pieces from the bowl carving, to make the violin belly, and I have a very nice piece of curly maple that my friend Bob gave me for the back. Ill experiment with veneer woods for the ribs and bouts for the sides of the body. Who knows, perhaps in a a year I will have a homemade violin that might make music... its been a lot of fun so far and its not over... gotta get ready for work now. working the swing shift from 5-midnight. Have a great rest of your day all...
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 23:51:48 +0000