Violin Plate Edge Final Thicknessing
In highly figured woods, how to efficiently finalize edge thickness?
Andres Sender - 01:40pm Dec 7, 1998
Gad it's a challenge getting that down to 10 words.
Doing the arching is not so difficult because you can work cross grain almost everywhere, but when bringing the edge down close to final thickness Strobel recommends a plane, and I don't trust that going with the grain, approaching final surface on highly figured wood, where a tearout would be a bad thing.
I can scrape, but I'd like to hear of any more efficient solutions.
Andres
For the edges I use a file to take tat last bit off. In from the edge you can use riffler files which are bent so only a short area of the teeth contact the instrument at one time. Planes do work in highly figured wood if they are very sharp and have a very small mouth.
George--thanks. Do you know of a good brand of violin plane that has tight mouths? Or does one inevitably have to shim or build one's own? I've heard some good things about Herdim brand tools, but the other brands I've seen are pretty gaping. (Aside from the wonderful but pricey adjustables.)
Files and rifflers--now whyn't I think of that? /-)
Andres
(Starting to dream of Herdim adjustable-mouth violin planes.)
1"x1" Rotary file (the coarsest you can find--and make sure it's a good one, which will cost about $20, not a $5 one)in the drill press, set 4mm over a fresh table topper of plywood, used at the highest speed. If you get one with teeth on the bottom (flat end) grind them off using a bench grinder and a power drill to spin the file (make the end a bit hollow and you'll be even happier.) Wrap all but the last 4mm with masking tape so you don't get chewed on. If the top wood is soft you can rip off the edge or corners when you are climbing grainlines--do these areas VERY carefully in the wrong direction.
I rough carve to about 6mm and then take the edges down 1mm at a time to final thickness. Watch your fingers--don't put them near the edge on the sucking-in side, and work pushing against the file, not resisting the draw into the work.
It does a beautiful job and can be quite frightening the first few times. Don't call ME if it walks over your hand and rips it to shreds! But I've never got hurt. I once talked to someone who used a Wagner Safety-Planer, but that cuts TOO well--let the wood lift up and it will cut right through it. The file with plain end won't, since there are no teeth on the bottom.
If you want to be ****Traditional**** use your single-bladed purfling cutter to cut in from the side of the plate at the right height all around. It will cut in far enough to do a great job, and then you just gouge down to the cut and you have a finished edge. I think I (re-)invented this idea after noticing that most classical period violins have the purfling in from the edge almost exactly the same distance as the edge thickness on any particular violin. What could be easier than to use the tool set the same for both jobs? You read it here first :-)
Exactly, I like the Safe-T Planer but don't trust it for just that reason. The rotary file idea sounds great, the purfling cutter sounds like it would be particularly efficient on a top.
Thanks again Michael!
Andres, My favorite planes are made by Christopher Larrman in Philomath OR. They are expensive but definatly worth it. There is a picture of one of them on Frank Ford's site in the pictures of the GAL convention section. The mouts are not adjustable but are much smaller than the Herdim ones I have. Christopher makes an extension for the back of the plane that fits in your palm which gives much better control and keeps your hand from cramping up.
Stewart Macdonald sells a Dremal router attchment for routing violin purfling chanels. You can put a 5/16" routing bit in the router and use it to cut the edges to an even thickness. I just use a sharp chisel because I hate using power tools and because I can do it pretty quickly by hand.
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