A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 9/22/09

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Inlaying the Purfling

To the left is a photo showing various knives, gouges, finger planes, and the purfling marker used in this stage of marking, incising and inlaying the purfling.

Below Ben is carefully incising purfling groove in the lower right C Bout corner on the Spruce top. his is a tedious process due to the nature of the wood grain in the corners. It is very easy for the wood between where the corner grooves meet to splinter off either during the carving process or afterward during the fitting of the purfling into the groove.

In order to create a smooth and level bottom to the groove a small gouge may be used as seen below.

Continued incising on the next corner. After finishing each corner Ben applies a light coat of glue to the corner area to strengthen the wood and prevent splintering during the final stages of fitting and inlaying the purfling.

Below the top corners are shown after incising.

Below is a strip of purfling a sandwich of maple with the outside pieces dyed ebony black.

Here pieces of purfling have been cut and bended to fit in the right lower C bout corner. For purling pieces to fit properly at the corner joints they must be cut diagonally like a mitre cut. This way the shorter inside of the corner has black meeting black as does the outside.

Below you can see the purfling fitted on the lower bout of the top before final gluing.

Here the maple back is shown with all purfling glued and dry.

The next phase includes final carving of the outside arches followed by drawing and cutting of the F holes on the top.