I left off last week having started the channels for the purfling. Upon review I was told they weren’t deep enough and so I spent much of this week going over my work. Fractions of a millimeter can make a big difference in violinmaking. Also last week, Mr. Vartanian asked me not to cut the corners. He cut two for me and then wanted me to try and copy his examples. And try I did. Each time I showed him what I thought was a good tracing he would tell me was either two long, short, fat, or pointed to the wrong spot. Mr. Vartanian let me borrow an old book of his with pictures of corners done by Antonio Stradivarius. While mine probably won’t look like those, I did learn that all of his points or “bee-stings” point to 2/3 down the corner edge. Nevertheless, I was allowed to cut the corners on the back and will come back to those on the top.
Mr. Vartanian's Corner
Tracing a Corner
Cutting out a Corner on the Back
To make purfling, very thin pieces of wood are used. The white center is about 0.7mm thick while the black edges are about 0.3mm! I used a block of poplar wood for the white center and Mr. Belote helped me cut two strips about 1mm thick with the band saw. To take it down to the right thickness, a plane is used very sparingly and then a scraper makes the sides smooth.
Poplar for the Purfling
Adjusting the Thickness
Measuring the Thickness
It’s pretty amazing how small of a shaving a plane can take if it is very sharp. I should also point out that wood this thin is very fragile. I knew this ahead of time but by accident, my hand brushed against a piece while it was still clamped to the bench. Even though I barely touched it and it barely moved, I cracked the first pieces I was working on. Since the crack wasn’t too big, I cut off that side and used the rest for the c-bout purfling but a mental note was made on my part.
Wood Split
Mr. Vartanian had some black wood stock stored away that he let me use but I forgot to ask what wood it is exactly. I know it can be ebony but it may be another wood. To help speed things along and just to show me, Mr. Vartanian glued my purfling pieces together. The really cool thing about his process is that because the wood is so thin, as glue is applied it makes the wood malleable and so it can be clamped into various shapes. The clamps of course match the same curves of the violin.
C-Bout Purfling Clamp
Purfling Against Top
All this may seem a little complicated but this process produces shaped wood and can be cut into strips using planes and knives.
Cutting Purfling Strips
Cutting the C-Bout Purfling
This protective and decorative part of the violin now has to be glued into the channel with special attention paid to the corners if I can get the last two just right…
