Violin #3 officially started January 10th. I'm using a 'Strad Poster' purchased here. I bought the 1666 Nicolo Amati and 1649 Nicolo Amati 'Alard', and decied to use the 'Alard'.

The back of the poster has a corrected-for-photographic-distortion outline which I traced an outline on tracing paper 4mm within the outline all around. I then transfered that to a thin aluminum sheet. From there I made my mold, but this time a little different. I'm using a traditional method I saw here on Philip Cole's website. I like the simplicity of it, and may have even mentioned in my earlier postings while making my other instruments how much I wasn't liking my current clamping arrangment.

For this instrument I will be using locally grown British Columbian woods. A HIGHLY flamed maple neck and 1-piece back, and a Kermodie Spruce top. For the ribs I am however using European maple from Atlantic Violin Supplies as they always sent a little extra when I ordered, plus I just don't feel like re-sawing ribs....

Since the first posting I cut the blocks from Cedar, glued them in and tonight just finished shaping them. I used a chisel on the end blocks and to cut down the corner blocks, but I used an old gouge I found at an antique store I reshaped to an inside bevel for the inside curves of the corner blocks. It went quite well, and the #9 sweep of the gouge was just right for the blocks curvature.

As you can see I left half the corner blocks unshaped to strenghten the tips while clamping the ribs on.

No progress on the violin so far. I've been spending my time working on a new bending iron form, but more on that later. This weekend I took a trip to Lee Valley and loaded up on stuff. I am taking a new approach to sharpening. My old way was to use micro abrasive sheets on glass. Works well but you go through alot of the sheets. I bought a DMT 325-1200 double sided Diamond Whetstone, and an assortment of felt wheels and honing compound. I needed two slow-speed grinders for the felt wheels but figured I could build a tool for cheaper, and did. The picture is fairly self explanatory, a 1/2HP motor mounted on a board with a long stainless steel shaft coupled to it. The felt wheels are as follows: 1/2" Medium for the inside of gouges, 3/4" Hard for gouges, 1" Hard for chisels and 1" Hard for bench/block plane blades only (so it wears perfectly even). I will probably add a tool or hand rest on the front, and I'll need a hood on the back to catch the green crap that flies off.



I also pickup some rare earth magnets and made this carving tool holder.

This afternoon I added a tool rest to my honing station. Same stainless steel rod material as the main shaft the wheels are on, fitted between two Mahogany pillars. I used my new Veritas Low-Angle block plane to do the finishing of the end-grain surfaces on the Mahogany pieces and it works INCREDIBLY well.



I also recieved this glue pot I purchased off Ebay. I was sick of my slow-cooker taking minimum 45mins to heat up, this takes less than 10mins and will maintain the optimum temp for the glue on a little over 6 on the dial with the lid off.

Here is the new bending iron form I mentioned earlier. I originally designed this about a year ago, but lost interest in getting it made as I lost interest in violin making a little while back. I drew it out on paper, transfered it to AutoCad at my work, and was able to get my boss the CNC it for me. I had to cut off a square base where the CNC machined clamped on to it, tap the mounting holes for the little base plate, and do some filing and sanding.

It works fairly well. I set it to 3.5 and it was hot enough after 20mins but eventually got too hot, and 2 seems like it'll work better. I made three c-bouts and was hoping to be able to wrap them around the iron, but that didn't work as well as I hoped. The fatter end is too fat, but the tighter end was pretty much perfect for both the c-bout corners. The fatter end will probably be fine for the upper & lower bout corners. It also seems to be too flat across the sides, and I had to use the fat end to add more curve to the middle of my test c-bouts. I did, however, base the design off the Strobel model violin I built my first two from, and the c-bouts of the Amati Alard are much more curved (and nicer looking).







Here it is with the standard Ibex cast aluminum form: