Carving a 17th Century Tailpiece

This project was done on commission for an instrument collector who was very interested in recreating a violin currently housed in the Bachhaus in Germany, the violin itself will be the subject of another post.  (This particular violin has a natural trumpet built into it.)  We know from the instrument's documentation the year it was built and that it has been with the collection since the 18th century.  The critical measurements provided by the museum accompanied the rather poor photographs I had to work with.  But having the measurements allowed me to transfer the photos into drawings with rather decent precision.


The photos were small and every attempt to blow them up reduced their quality so i was forced to use blurry photos for the measurements. Although that did not create any real problems it certainly was not easy.

From the basic measurements of the body the tailpiece dimensions were easily determined after scaling up the photos. The curves of the sides of the tailpiece I traced from an older English (?) style tailpiece.  The tailpiece seen in the right of the photo which I was hoping to copy directly turned out not to have any measurements that matched the scaled drawings.

I did have two photos that showed the tailpiece from the endpin view.  That angle provided important information about its thickness and general curves.

The photo above shows the tailpiece after initial shaping and drilling.  I cut the piece a bit wide so as to be able to change the shape slightly from the original if needed. I wouldn't know if my measurements were correct until the shaping began.  I was worried that the perspective might be skewed so I was ready to rely on my eye for the final shaping if something didn't look correct as I cut it to the final shape (I have only one photo that shows the tailpiece perfectly straight on and unfortunately it is also the worst photo I have of the instrument.

I did the initial radiusing with a Foredom rotary tool.  I used a medium grit carbide burr.  All shaping after that was done by hand using sandpaper and files.

This is the tailpiece ready for the inlay work to begin.  The radius was going to create some problems with the ivory or bone inlay. I had to cut the inlay pieces extra thick to compensate for the curves.  I worked with both bone and ivory for the inlay and the ivory simply looked, and matched the photos, better.  (A serious footnote: the ivory was a scrap just large enough for those two inlays, as you can see in the photo below, and was probably 50 years old, my guess was it was cut from an old gun grip. I would not normally work with ivory and am against its use, sale, and trade of any kind in the marketplace. I made an exception for this as it was honestly an old broken scrap.)



The inlays were cut using a jeweler's saw with an extremely fine blade. After cutting, the inlays were glued temporarily to the surface, carefully traced with a fine tanto pointed knife, and then removed with a painter's spatula. I cut the cavity using both a Dremel tool at 25,000 rpm and a .5mm burr, and a series of knives to make the edges absolutely crisp. The inlays were a perfect fit. After gluing and light sanding using papers starting at 400 grit and working up to 1000 grit, I oiled and french polished the entire surface.



The above photo is the finished piece as delivered to the customer. It will be installed on the reproduction violin upon completion of that project.  Thank you for reading, John Orth
Orthwest Studios

Custom Carving a Cello Tailpiece

Custom Carving a Cello Tailpiece

By John Orth

This tailpiece was carved as a display piece for my shop.  The tailpiece itself was factory made, probably fairly old, and was taken off of an old cello that had come in for restoration.  This particular one is a beautiful piece of ebony and that is why I chose it.  When doing work like this it helps to have very straight grain and uniformity of color.  

The process starts with the drawing of the design.  In this case I wanted Victorian scroll work to really highlight the shape, but not so much carving as to be awkward looking on the instrument once installed.

Mechanical pencils work well for this.  The small, detailed 0.5 tip make for easy carving later on.

The initial carving begins with outlining using either a knife or skew chisel.  Some might prefer to use a veining chisel or something similar, but i am very comfortable using a marking knife or even my violin bridge knife for the defining edges.

The relief will be shallow in the finished carving.  No point in the carving will be deeper or taller than one millimeter.

The photos both show the initial outlining and some minor reference depth cutting.

More of the background can be removed with a foredom or dremel style tool.  Rotary tools are really helpful for the quick removal of waste material.  Be very careful with rotary tools around the detail, one slip and you’ll find yourself doing repair work.  You can see an example of that in the uppermost leaf of the scroll almost where it touches the string hole.  With ebony, the simplest solution is a combination of superglue and ebony dust.  On larger repairs it is better to pare the area flat and replace it with a new piece of solid wood.  

All of the initial lines have been cut and the shaping has begun.  I work mostly with a gouge and a ¼” paring chisel. As you get deeper into the detail smaller tools like dental scrapers work better.

Here you can see where some of the detail is beginning to show and most of the bulk removal has been finished.  It is relatively easy to make sanding blocks and scrapers from bits of metal and cut scraps of wood with sandpaper glued to them.  The amount of detail is up to you and really depends on the overall look you are going for.

A good cup of coffee will get you through the long hours of carving… Here you can see the details, the few I want, drawn back in with a pencil.  I find it helpful to continually redraw the image, both to follow my original design, but also to make changes where necessary.  Often, the design will change because as you cut into the piece the depth changes the overall look and perspective changes with it. So do not be afraid to let the piece flow… as long as you are still in control.

Getting closer to the final shape before polishing begins.

In the next photo the shapes I was looking for is finished and the sanding and polishing are underway.  This part requires as much patience as you are willing to put in to it.  Take your time.  Projects like this can take weeks of part time work, so there is no rush.  

Here you can see the upper leaf is finished while the lower still requires some finishing.  Keep in mind that these parts are only raised less than 1mm from the surrounding surface.

And the finished carving.

After the carving is complete to your liking any number of finishes would work. For this piece I am using a very simple French polish, a combination of shellac, rosin, linseed oil and rottenstone. The new string saddle was cut from a scrap of ebony, an old fingerboard.  

Thanks for looking.  And if this post inspires you in any way to carve a piece of your own please share the images with me.  Thank you, John

Orthwest Studios

Color Matching Violin Varnish, introduction

By John Orth

In this first part I'll begin with an overview of

color matching principles for violins.  There are many available techniques, and over time perhaps I can cover a few of them.  I have developed a few techniques that I would consider my favorites.  What works for me may not work for others, but by studying many possible techniques you will find one or two that work for you. 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you begin:

The most important question you can ask:
What is the value of the instrument and how will any varnish repair affect that value?
     The answer to that question is always subjective and requires experience.  Know the instrument you are about to work on and do not enter into varnish work lightly because the consequences are usually permanent.  (These articles will focus on touch up and matching, not refinishing.  The complete refinishing of a violin has many consequences, not just monetary value of the instrument, to consider and will be explored separately.)  

Is the area to be color matched separate from other colors? as in a newly installed rib?

Or a newly installed neck?

Or do the colors have to blend together on a single surface as in the damaged top shown below? 

These might seem like obvious questions, but it helps put you in the right frame of mind.  Asking yourself obvious questions will give you pause to explore options.  In each of these examples multiple techniques could be employed.  Which technique would best suit the job at hand? Experience and practice will provide the answer.

In future installments we'll explore three important techniques in detail that cover all the images shown above: brushing, pointillist brushing, and airbrushing.  Airbrushing is the most basic in that the techniques are simple to learn, take little time explore, and offers any luthier great flexibility with fading and color blending over large surface areas like the violin rib shown above. The airbrush allows a degree of fading and blending that other techniques just don't offer.  I typically use the airbrush on lower end instruments or to apply a final clear coat when time is a factor. 

Brushing, or padding, requires patience, practice, and a steady hand to accomplish with any degree of skill on a valuable violin, but can often be employed with relatively positive results by a beginner if the pre-made varnish is well matched to the instrument as with the heel and scroll shown above.  With the violin neck shown in the photos above I pre-matched the varnish and applied it to many scraps of wood until I was happy with the results.  Then, using a combination of brushes and french polishing techniques, the final product is a well blended and effortless looking finish that matched the original.

Pointillist is my preferred technique on high end violins or anywhere the colors are complex as in the photo below.  Pointillism is usually the most time consuming and most difficult to master, but will provide you some amazing results if your patience can withstand the monotony.  The violin shown below was done with many hand carved toothpicks and extremely tiny brushes using pointillist techniques (this violin will be the focus of the post on this particular technique).  Each bit of color is applied in extremely tiny dots, using sharpened toothpicks and then very slowly blended together using brushes, often handmade, of various shapes.  The color application can take many hours over as many weeks. You can easily plan on one hour per inch.  (The lighting on the violin was not very good when I took these photos, but if you look closely at the photos you will see that this technique allows you to completely control the color application and maintain the original look of the varnish with all the variation in blending and fading that was in the original varnish.)  

With any of these techniques there is a certain amount of learn craft, or simple technical skill that one must employ, but the rest is art.  Color matching is where the luthier is allowed to explore and create, dream and hope... and sometimes with a bit of guessing, resurrect something beautiful.  Varnish repair can be a simple craft when carried out by an amateur, or the highest art when performed by a luthier who loves his work.  Matching becomes art with each application of color regardless of how it is applied and the luthier must decide beforehand what the final product will be.  

Once you decide on an appropriate method you must ask yourself: Will I being true to the original? or, Am I creating something new? This is the last question you need to ask, because the answer determines the instrument's future.   

Thank you for reading, John

Orthwest Studios