DIY Network

Handmade Violin, Part 9: Gluing the Top Plate From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-203

The assembled violin body. The next phase is the creation of the neck.

This third episode of DIY's five-part series on violin-making focuses on creating the violin's neck and scroll. Prior to carving the neck, however, work continues with gluing on the front plate to finish the body, then smoothing the edges of the completed body. Those are the steps covered in this second episode segment.

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Prior to gluing on the top, the inside blocks have been shaped, the inside of the body is cleaned out and excess glue is removed. Sealer is applied to the inside of the back and top (figure A).

Also before glue-up, in order to ensure a perfect fit, some planing of the ribs may be necessary (figure B). Test-fits and test-clamping are performed to make certain that there are no gaps.

Figure A

Figure B

Hide-glue is used to join the pieces of the violin together, and it's necessary for the glue to be hot. To keep it from cooling before the bond is secure, test fitting of the pieces is always done before this step. Because the glue sets up quickly, this step is done by two people so that the process can be completed more quickly. Glue is applied to the appropriate portions of the top and ribs (figure C). The top plate is then carefully put into position (figure D).

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

Once the front plate is in place, it is clamped to allow the glue to dry (figure E). Again, this is a two-person job. The clamps are left on until the glue has dried, which takes about two hours. As an extra precaution, students hold an alcohol lamp under the seam. It keeps the hide glue hot while the plate settles-in under the pressure of the clamps. Once it's dry there's just a little work left to finish the violin body.

With the glue dried, the outside edges of the violin's plate must be rounded and smoothed using a series of rasps and files (figures F and G). According to violin-maker Becky Elliott, the outside edge is rounded and brought up the lip of the channel made earlier. "How far you bring that lip around, and how clean that line is," she says "is very individual. It's a style choice of the maker. A clean, crisp line is preferable."

Figure F

Figure G

The violin maker's eye is the key here, because there has to be a balance in the inside-and-outside roundness (figures H and I). Makers have to look at the instrument now from all angles now.

Figure H

Figure I

Finally, to finish the violin body a notch is cut at the bottom of the top-plate (figure J). This is for the saddle to be added. "The saddle is a piece of ebony that's set into the edge of the top, above the lower block," says Chicago School co-director Fred Thompson, "The purpose of the saddle is to hold the tail-gut that attaches the tail-piece to the end-button. Without the saddle, the tail-gut would cut right into the spruce because spruce is pretty soft."

Once the saddle is added, the body is complete (figure K).

Figure J

Figure K

In the segment that follows, work gets underway with cutting and hand-shaping the neck.

RESOURCES :

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