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Posted by Chet Bishop on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
It took me a couple of hours, I guess, to do the final graduation, planing and scraping the inside of the European Spruce front cello plate to perfection (or nearly so). Here is the plate, with some pieces of willow lining stock across it, to form shadows so you can see the curves. The color is so neutral that without the shadows, the plate looks flat in photographs.
The f-holes had been incised earlier, so all that was left to do is finish cutting them out. I used the f-hole cutter to cut the circular portions of each f-hole.
Then I used a coping saw and a knife to complete the cutting. Each hole will still be refined and perfected, later, using a knife and a small file.
But the f-holes are essentially complete. the next step is to install the bass-bar.
4 comments on “Graduation Completed; F-holes cut”
boxbow Says:
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 @6:50:06 AM
I've been following this build since you started blogging about it. Each installation leaves me thinking that I'd like to comment but I'm so far out of my depth that I find myself speechless. Never mind "awesome." I am in awe, for real. This is one of those things where I think, yeah, it'd be cool to build a fiddle. But then I realize that first you need some kind of fire in the belly to take it on and stick with it long enough to do a decent job on fiddle #7 or #57 or however many it takes to learn how to hide your mistakes or not make them in the first place. Incredible.
Chet Bishop Says:
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 @7:57:07 AM
Well, my friend, that is a good observation.
I did, indeed, make a bunch of mistakes on my first. And (but a few less) on my second, etc. On the first, I repaired and concealed as best I could. [bluefiddles.com/chronology (go to the bottom of the page-- the first instrument is there.)] Each instrument, with one or two exceptions, was better than the one before, which was encouraging in itself.
I gained confidence, and coordination as I learned. Certain jobs that left me so frustrated I was nearly beside myself, on the first few are now no problem. Had I had a teacher, PRESENT--at hand, it would have been a much easier learning curve, but my few teachers have been far away when I really needed them, and busy, besides, so sometimes it has been a little rough.
Things have gradually smoothed out, though, and I am enjoying it more than ever. I think that is a large part of what builds the "fire in the belly", as you put it. I really *like* it.
A young man who has been sporadically visiting me, and working on his first instrument, asked one day, "What makes you keep doing this?" I thought about it, and made my usual comments about the beauty of the wood, and the beauty of the finished instruments, the joy of hearing them play, etc., but felt I was not hitting the mark. He kept planing away at his plate, and about five minutes later, answered his own question for both of us: "This is incredibly satisfying work!", he blurted.
And there it is. It is incredibly satisfying work; therapeutic, etc. It draws me along to better work and more challenging builds. If you want to do it, get a book from Henry Strobel, and jump in. (The water's fine!) :-)
Chet Bishop Says:
Thursday, March 28, 2013 @8:53:30 AM
Didn't get much done last night. A fellow gave me several planks of extremely curly (and very dense) Douglas fir, seasoned for 30 years. They were too big for me to haul home, so I had my son come and get them with his pickup truck, and now they are stored above his shop, waiting for us to come up with a use for them. :-) They are gorgeous, but unbelievably heavy...not my choice for soundboard wood, I'm afraid.
By the time I got home it was 6PM, and I was tired, so all I got done was to lay out the bass-bar location inside the front plate, cut out the bass-bar blank, and do the preliminary fitting to the front plate. In the process, due to the original size of the blank, I also cut out four violin or viola bass-bar blanks, but that does not contribute to this project. I wish I had gone further with it, but I didn't. I have taken this friday and next monday off, so perhaps I can make some serious progress this weekend..
Chet Bishop Says:
Friday, March 29, 2013 @3:56:10 PM
I got the bass bar installed, and refined the f-holes a bit...also refined the graduations a little, and did some scraping on the outside. Waiting for the glue to dry on the bass-bar, for the moment. Changed all the tires (snow-tires become illegal Monday, I think), and changed my sparkplugs. It has been that sort of day. I intend to get out and begin graduating the back plate, but I am taking a break. :-) (tired, and being lazy...)
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