Category: Rib

The C Bouts were glued and the clamps were removed. To prepare for the upper and bottom ribs, the clamping blocks are needed. The book says hard wood was used for the blocks. Instead, my choice was to use home center white wood and cut it so the grain presses the corner block perpendicularly. View…

This was a long way to reach to this point: the first glue to parts that form the body of the violin(the corner blocks were glued to the mould which will be detached later). This is exciting that the part of the violin is really built! Actually, I failed once when the animal glue condition…

Although I practiced this with some wood from home center, it would have been a very thrilling and sensitive job for me since it uses heat which may burn the wood and too much pressure may break the rib. Indeed it was different. The wood from home center was lighter and softer thus bending was…

After trimming the edges of the rim to make them into certain width, now the thickness. This was a lot of work. I never thought trimming just 0.8mm would be such a long distance! I used toothed blade plain first, sandpaper to remove the grooved surface, and scraper to finish. Next work will be bending…

Cutting the C bout corner blocks is done. Now moving on to the ribs. Cutting the edge of the ribs and plaining. I normally don’t really insist the quality of tools because I believe the final skill relies on the hands. Good tools may assist to have good result, but it’s more important to adapt…

This first attempt on rib bending with the hot iron wasn’t bad, I guess. When I use a machine for first time, I often doubt if it explodes. That makes me nervous. The heat iron has to gain its temperature up to 220 degree Celsius that can’t burn even a piece of paper. But somewhat…