Monday August 30th, 2010
Violin Restoration: From Broke to Baroque
The Work Begins
Ben is loosening the bottom bout rib from the back plate in the photo below. Additional photos show steps in working on the top plate.
Here Ben is using a chisel to cut away the top of the bass bar.
Once most of the bass bar is removed he switches to a small finger plane which he uses to remove the remainder of the bass bar and the glue which has held it to the top plate. He uses this technique since the top plate is very thick and he plans to regraduate/thin it anyway. In the case that the plate was not to be thinned he would use hot water to loosen and remove the last layer and glue.
Below Ben is checking the cracks on the top plate including the one on the lower bass bout which was repaired with cleats(lighter colored wood above his thumb) years before. The small cleats used previously were not effective and the crack had reopened and will need to be repaired again.
Applying hot water Ben is cleaning the cracks.
He has removed parts of the old cleats and glue as well as dirt from the cracks that were never repaired. Below you can clearly see the separation needed so he can apply glue.
For final cleaning he will use water and soap which will cause the foaming seen below.
Before starting to glue the cracks he always does a test clamping to see how the parts will fit together and usually lets the cracks dry out while clamped..
Below he is applying glue to the top bout crack that had never been repaired. He uses the old "brush and Finger" technique. First applying the hide glue to the top of the crack with a brush as seen here.
Then he uses his finger to push the glue into the crack and clean the excess off.
On the under side of the plate he will remove excess glue that was forced through the crack from above.
Below the glued cracks are clamped for drying. After all of the top plate cracks are glued solidly Ben can start the process of thinning/regraduating the thickness of the plate. That will be at a later date. When that process is complete however he plan to inlay and glue oval patch (like a sound post patch) much larger and more durable than the cleats used previously.
