Arching the Top

I mentioned in earlier updates that I would be using templates for the arching. Mr. Vartanian has always used his eyes and he has started showing me angles and ways to look at the arch to make it even and smooth. He also let me borrow a violin he was working on to base my arching.

I had to pay special attention to the corners to make sure they are smooth and after checking with him one morning he said I was at a good stopping point and I could move on to the top. You can see in the bottom left of the second picture here one of the spots that is going to be thin from the drill press I used flattening the edge.

Moving onto the top, Mr. Vartanian cut out my pattern since I’m personally a little nervous about doing something like this on the bandsaw. He is very efficient and cut right up to the line of the pattern. He also said half jokingly half seriously I should keep the extra wood incase I mess up. I put it aside just in case.

I started to compare the thickness of the back to the top just to see how much wood I’m actually going to have to take off. It’s pretty amazing how much extra is needed to create something so thin. I started to use Mr. Belote’s violin cradle to rough the arching of the top and Mr. Vartanian gave me another option for work space similar to his table I used for the back. We nailed two pieces of leather into a bench to brace the plate up against. It was very easy to work with and adjust angles without having the plate clamped down.

Working with spruce is very different from maple. The grain of spruce runs vertically so it has a tendency to split. This is most difficult in the C-bout area. To counter the splitting there, Mr. Vartanian told me to come at the splitting wood from two directions. It is also much easier to cut spruce than maple so I’m finding that I can brace the plate with my hand and work with it against the leather. With a rough 5mm line I started gouging out a rough arch.

Sometimes wood will have little impurities in it that can’t be seen till it’s cut into. This is common to see in the process of making and sometimes in the final product if it doesn’t get cut away. I found a little one in my top that started to disappear after I cut away more wood.

Since I left the top a little thick when it was being glued together we took it down flat again with a plane taking off about another millimeter. I then went to rough the arching more now using finger planes instead of the gouge to smooth things out.

Before taking the plate to the drill press, Mr. Vartanian wanted me to take the edge down to 5mm more exactly to help counter messing up and getting too thin an edge at any spots. This I did with a plane as well. Here’s how the thickness is comparing after the edge work.

Before taking the top to the drill press Mr. Vartanian noticed I’ve been working rather slowly and he showed me some ways to more efficiently take wood off. He said it usually takes him about a day to get a nice rough arch for the top. We set up the drill press and I focused more on keeping a constant pressure on the top. I was successful in cutting an even edge this time!

Going back with small planes I took the edge down smooth and left it for the holiday!