Posted by jerry on February 8th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Music, Woodwork
First up, I’m still maintaining this one – but I thought i’d try an experiment with a single-topic blog – Four Strings – which will be about all things fiddle and violin and folk music. So the music posts you have enjoyed here will now be on the Four Strings blog.
The main thing I’m working on at the moment is a pochette – a travel fiddle – that I am making using traditional violin making techniques. So there’s also something there for the woodworker. My latest post there is about how to bend the sides – hence “Bend it like Antonio” (Stradivarius).
Let me know what you think of it. If it works well, I may set up a couple of other single-topic blogs so you can follow your favourite theme. Of course the eclectic ‘random notebook’ style of this one will continue as usual
Cheers
Jerry
1 Comment »
Posted by jerry on February 2nd, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
The Woodwhisperer provides a great series of video podcasts outlining all of the steps needed to make a mission-style Arts and Crafts Movement table. In this first podcast he discusses the design process, using Google’s ‘Sketch-up’ 3D modeling program to develop a materials cutting list. He then steps through the process for preparing the lumber and then the joinery options. Watch all three videos, starting with #11 shown below to get the complete project – loaded with information for the woodworker
Enjoy!
Cheers
Jerry
Comments Off on Making an Arts and Craft table
Posted by jerry on January 31st, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Music, Woodwork
I’ve been reading Bruce Ossman’s book: Violin Making: A Guide for the Amateur
. This is an excellent book showing with clear diagrams every stage of violin construction. My only minor criticism is the mix of metric and imperial measurements – thicknesses are in 1/32″ while lengths are in centimetres – but the clear diagrams throughout are very self explanatory.
From this I have adapted the techniques of traditional violin making to design and begin construction of a pochette – a kind of travel fiddle popular in the eighteenth century by itinerant dancing masters.
So far I have the mold made and the ribs cut to size and thicknessed. A friendly luthier gave me a spare violin neck with which to try the experiment – I’ll blog progress with this, my latest woodworking project 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
Comments Off on Making a pochette
Posted by jerry on December 30th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Music, Woodwork
You’d better grab a cuppa for this one! This is a tale of a bridge, a nut and two tail-pieces…
My eight-string hardanger fiddle was made for me over 20 years ago and in those days there was little or no information about bridge construction or shape or about how the sympathetic strings ran between the tuning pegs and the tail-piece. So despite its wonderful sound I was left with a puzzle.
The way the instrument was set up the sympathetic strings ran from the tuning pegs through four tiny holes, then beneath the fingerboard and through another four tiny holes in the bridge from where they were looped directly to the button at the base of the belly.
The problem was that I had no idea how to change those strings if they ever broke – and after 20 something years the rust alone was giving cause for concern.
I also wanted a means to attach fine adjusters to the sympathetic strings – and that’s how it all began.
At the music shop I bought a one-sixteenth size tail-piece with built-in fine tuners – I thought maybe I could do a double layer thing with two tail-pieces each with four fine tuners. Good theory. But how to change those strings?
I also had a problem with the nut (the ridge at the end of the fingerboard nearest the tuning pegs) – after 20 years of wear I had buzzing strings as the grooves in the nut had worn down almost to the fingerboard. I sought the advice of a friendly luthier who suggested I either make a new nut or add a small wedge beneath the nut. He assured me it was an easy job – one I could do myself – or he could charge a small fortune for a new one.
I decided to have a go. I still had the third problem of the bridge and the tightly wedged strings. So. Three issues to resolve and they all had to be tackled at one time.
I took on the bridge first – a quick search on the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America and found some size and shape notes with drawings of hardanger bridges – one in the pattern of Sverre Sandvik, and one in the pattern of Olav Viken – two makers of hardanger fiddles:
I chose the former (sandvik version) and headed off to the shed to find some wood – and there I found an off-cut of some Tasmanian Oak which looked about the right density. I scaled the drawings and printed them. Then cut out and glued the sandvik one to the timber and used a fretsaw to cut the main outline. Then drilled holes at each end of the ‘D’ opening in the centre and cut out the shape, finishing with some fine files and a sander.
Some levering with a chisel removed the nut with surprising ease – it came away cleanly. With the hobby bandsaw I carefully cut a ‘U’ shape to the height of the string holes and then glued a thin shaving of jarrah (Western Australian mahogany-like timber) and re-glued it in place at the end of the fingerboard after a little re-shaping on the slow-speed sander. With the nut and the bridge, my hardingfele was now like a traditional hardanger fiddle.
I won’t go into the several hours it took to replace the soundpost after I dislodged it, but at last the fiddle was ready for re-stringing.
By looping the smaller tail-piece loop around the larger tail-piece I was able to get the smaller one to sit ahead of the main tail-piece, and began by attaching the sympathetic strings to the smaller one. Then added the top strings and the hardingfele could sing again.
Yes the tone is different – a little brasher – with the new bridge and nut, but the buzzing is gone and I have fine tuners on all strings. I have had to insert a small piece of felt between the two tail-pieces to stop a small vibration there, but I’m happy to have solved the main structural issues.
One thing remains – I think I need to make a single tail-piece with eight tuners – so the rig is a little shorter and this will enable me to position the bridge closer to the soundpost which is about a centimetre back from the ‘E’-string side of the bridge. And I have a piece of jarrah that looks just right for it!
Cheers
Jerry
2 Comments »
Posted by jerry on December 27th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
If you’re anything like the kind of hobby woodworker that I am, you will now be finding it hard to get to various benches and tools because of all the bits of lumber of various lengths left over from various projects, like dining tables or stilt legs.
It is time to get o r g a n i s e d !! Actually I was inspired by Sharon’s fabric stash reduction challenge – although I wasn’t going to weigh my stash!
I did, however remove every scrap of timber from my shed and thought about how best to organise it so I could get to all the bits of timber I need for different projects on my new years list of things to build.
The rough-sawn timber is ribbon-gum – the remnants of the old gum tree that burnt in the Canberra Bushfire of January 2003; the pale timber is radiata pine, and the red timber is jarrah – a Western Australian hardwood, sometimes called Australian mahogany. I also have a few camphor turning blanks, and some cherry wood and crab apple branches – also for turning.
I decided to improve my wood rack by adding a couple of additional supports, and that entailed modifying the two half-pallets I was using as a base. In the process I also reduced my stash by two bits of lumber – neat huh? 🙂
The two additional supports are dowelled into the shelf supports and screwed to them for additional stability. The supports are made from timber recycled from old brick pallets.
And I have decided that I will machine up all my lumber before returning it to my shed so it’s ready for use when I need it – and no excuses like “I need to dress this timber – heck I’ll just buy some from the hardware store…”
But this year, along with Sharon my aim will be to use up a good portion of my wood stash, rather than expand it.
And I turned around my jointer and thicknesser so that the work flow is better, and I have better access to my work benches. So a good day’s work all round 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
1 Comment »
