Como Hacer Un Violin

Making a Violin
Day 1 The plates

This is one page in a series about making a violin by hand in the traditional way. Please see the introduction for more about the series and links to other pages. The glossary contains an explanation of the terms used.

Today the wood for the violin is selected and the plates are prepared. Violin maker Derek Roberts selects a piece of spruce for the front ofthe instrument from his store of seasoned wood. The store also contains pieces of maple which will be used for the back, ribs and scroll.

The excitement of making a violin is here in these pieces of wood. Beautiful in their own right, they will be fashioned by the hands of a master craftsman into a beautiful instrument which will in turn produce wonderful sounds in the hands of a mastermusician. Left is the wedge of spruce as it was sawn from the tree. Spruce is strong and light and has ideal resonant qualities.

A saw cut through the wedge allows it to be opened up like a book, into two plates.

The two plates will eventually be glued together. First they have to be flattened and squared to make a perfect joint. Derek uses a large plane to flatten the face of each plate. He thenplanes the edges of each plate square.

Derek checks the edges with a square, and the faces with a straight edge. More work must be done with the plane until a perfect result is obtained. Then the two plates can be glued together.

Derek examines the joint before applying glue. The two plates must fit together perfectly. The final joint will be almost invisible. Hot animal glue is applied tothe joint. Derek rubs the two surfaces of the joint together to get rid of excess glue.

Finally the plates are cramped together. The glue will take several hours to dry. Later, the outline of the front will be marked and roughly sawn out.

This wedge of maple will be prepared and jointed in the same way, for the back of the violin. Maple selected for violin making is often strikingly figured,as in this piece.

The flame, as the figuring is called, appears to flicker as it catches the light from different angles. This gives a very attractive effect to the finished instrument.

Making a Violin
Day 2 The blocks

This is one page in a series about making a violin by hand in the traditional way. Please see the introduction for more about the series and links to other pages. Theglossary contains an explanation of the terms used.

Today the blocks are glued to the mould and shaped. The blocks are cut from willow, a strong, light wood which is easily carved. There are six blocks, two end blocks and four corner blocks. Above, violin maker Derek Roberts is planing one of the corner blocks. You can see the five other blocks roughly positioned round the mould.

The cornerblocks will form the corners between the C ribs and the top and bottom bouts. The top block will have the neck joint cut in it, and the bottom block will have a tapered hole reamed for the end pin. Each block is worked with a small hand plane and checked with a square. It must be accurate to achieve a good fit with the mould.

The blocks are glued to the mould. Animal glue is heated and appliedwith a brush to the block surface. The joint is easy to break later on when the ribs are complete and the blocks need to be detached from the mould. The mould itself forms the basis for building up the rib structure of the instrument. There are two types of mould, the inside or Italian mould, used here, and the outside or French mould. Each violin maker makes his or her own moulds based on patternsfor different models of instrument.

The holes through the mould will be used at a later stage for attaching cramps to the instrument.

Once the six blocks are glued to the mould, work starts on shaping each block. Right, a corner block is shaped with a large gouge.

Making a Violin
Day 3 The ribs

This is one page in a series about making a violin by hand in the traditional way....