Knife skills

Throughout this video you can see trained luthiers using a simple knife to do a variety of tasks most people use a file and sand paper for. Watch out for tempering the bend in the pernambuco bow shaft - amazing

Incredible knife skills, true artists for sure. Thanks Pete, you seems to find very interesting videos of amazing skill levels.

Yeah, thanks Pete for yet another interesting video... I look at all those billets of wood in the beginning and I think: Does the world really need that many new violins? Apparently so.

The part that struck me was how casual the neck to body connection was made. Chip out a notch and go.... Apparently this is not a big issue with violin makers. Great stuff.

When I watch videos like this, be it oud making, classical guitar making or violin making, one word comes to mind: "confidence". Craftsmen simply carry out tasks with hand tools that many would fear to attempt lest they spoil all the work that had gone before. Just see him cutting the purfling slot, then hammering home the purfling for example: one mistake and the front/back plate is wrecked!

I was particularly fascinated by the violin bow making. Who would have thought there was so much skilled work involved?

greenscoe said:

When I watch videos like this, be it oud making, classical guitar making or violin making, one word comes to mind: "confidence". Craftsmen simply carry out tasks with hand tools that many would fear to attempt lest they spoil all the work that had gone before. Just see him cutting the purfling slot, then hammering home the purfling for example: one mistake and the front/back plate is wrecked!

I was particularly fascinated by the violin bow making. Who would have thought there was so much skilled work involved?

Click to expand...

Talking of skills and confidence ..Have you seen this guy at work ? Something I tried to do and made a right mess of when I was restoring Vintage British motorcycles in my younger days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsTIMxeO_ng

"Have you seen this guy at work ?"

Ken, I see what you mean: a steady hand to be sure! I wonder if he ever thought about being a surgeon?

That finishing process seems really scary to me, especially taking the plane to the neck after getting the body done and perfect.

sequoia said:

Yeah, thanks Pete for yet another interesting video... I look at all those billets of wood in the beginning and I think: Does the world really need that many new violins? Apparently so.

The part that struck me was how casual the neck to body connection was made. Chip out a notch and go.... Apparently this is not a big issue with violin makers. Great stuff.

Click to expand...

They call it a shallow mortice joint. There isn't much mechanical hold. It could easily be used on a Ukulele. The same joint was used on Guitars in the 19th century and they were much higher tension than a Ukulele or a Violin.

Many years ago I shared a workshop with a couple of trained Violin makers. The knife, the gouge and the scraper were their primary tools. I hardly ever saw them use sandpaper. They nicknamed me Pig-Pen, after the kid from Charlie Brown. They said a dust cloud followed me everywhere, on account of how much sanding I did. They really didn't think much to Guitar making. Far too much of an industrial process for their liking. Amazing considering that the only power tool that I used was a Bandsaw!
But I learnt so much from those two Fiddle makers. Some of the repair work that they did was amazing.

How about that slick little tool at 14:40

would you guys know the brush on finish they were using? Shellac?

Oil or spirit varnish..The back of the neck may get French polish...

That looks very much like a Spirit Varnish (which is the stuff that I use). You can tell by the way that he is applying it, no messing around. He's a real expert at it, it's far from easy and even harder with colour in it. People go on about French polish being difficult but Spirit varnishing requires the greater skill IMO. I've done enough of both to know. Actually I briefly trained with a French Polisher in the early 80's and I was getting good results very quickly. That certainly didn't happen with Spirit Varnishing.
The varnish itself is (probably) mostly Shellac. They usually add other resins in the mix and perhaps other stuff to give colour. The famous recipe is the 1704 Varnish, which can be found on U-tube.
There are dozens and dozens of such recipes. I've tried many. These days I pretty much stay with brushing straight Shellac with the wax left in. The wax seems to make it a touch easier to brush. You can also use a few drops of Spike Oil of Lavender to delay the drying a little. The varnish/shellac itself is watery thin, it has to be. They may put on as many as 18 coats, which may seem like an awful lot but this is thin stuff! Each coat only takes a couple of minutes to put on. This is mighty quick. I put on around 15/16 coats in two long hour days. A full gloss finish french Polish probably takes me 8 hours total work on a full sized Guitar. Spirit Varnishing will cut that down to less than half that. I love the stuff but wish I was better at it. I also love watching skilled varnishers like him. Sad I know but it's my therapy.