DIY Network

Handmade Violin, Part 6: Shaping the Plates From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-202

Expert violin-maker Becky Elliott shows the various stages in the shaping of the violin's plates.

This second episode of DIY's five-part series on violin-making focuses on the violin's plates -- i.e., the top and back.

Thus far, the book-matched halves of the wood plates have been joined. After sawing out the shapes, expert violin-maker Becky Elliott thinned them a bit by rough gouging. In this segment we see how to bring each plate's edge to its final thickness.

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• Perfecting the edge first sets a course to follow later when students create the violin's final arch. First, a channel gouge takes the plate down to the required dimension at the edge (figure A). Calipers are used to insure the channel stays exactly the same thickness around the plate (figure B).

  Figure A

  Figure B

  
  

• Next a finger plane flattens the edge of the plate from the low point of the channel outward (figure C).

• Filing the edge (figure D) is the last step.
  
  
• When the process is done, the perimeter is completely even and consistent in thickness. The process is repeated again because the top and the back plate require this step, but for each, the thickness varies slightly.

  Figure C

  Figure D

  
  

• Creating the final arch, or the finished exterior, of each plate is easier to demonstrate when you see all the stages together (figure E).

• According to Becky, the process begins with rough gouging, then moves on to some edge-thicknessing to determine the low-point of the arch. Then some additional gouging is done to finalize the shape of the arch. She then refines the arch using finger planes. Once she's happy with the shape, she smoothes the surface using special scrapers made of hardened steel (figure F). These hand-scrapers are actually made at the school, and are preferred for this type of smoothing than sandpaper.

• The shape and thickness of the arch is critical to the sound of the violin and, like many handmade musical instruments, each violin has its own unique character.

  Figure E

  Figure F

  
  

  	Figure G
  	Figure H
  	Figure I

• Once the outer surfaces are done, the inside of each plate -- front and back -- must then gouged out. In other words, the inside of each plate is flat (figure G) and needs to be hollowed out. Becky places the plate in a special cradle for support and starts by carving away big chucks (figure H).

• Slowly the inside takes shape. Becky works within guide-lines that she has marked on the surface of the plate, and she monitors her progress closely to make sure she doesn't make the plates too thin. Since the outside of each plate has been arched, she hollows the inside until the caliper reads between five and seven millimeters (figure I). That's still too thick for a violin, but it's suitable for this early stage.
  

RESOURCES :

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Order this book from Amazon.com.

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