Today the first stave of the viola da gamba is bent. 6 more pieces to go!
Yes, they really were built this way. The next two are the tricky ones as they have to be bent with a twist in them. I'm going to leave them like this to settle and hold their shape before jointing the edges and gluing them together. I'll have to check for springback as I don't want to build stress into the instrument's top.
The center is bent first, then the next two which continue the belly. The 3rd & 4th are basically flat. This won't quite make the full top, I'll have to add some wings for the very edge.
Once this is all assembled I can establish a nice flat bottom edge for gluing the top to the sides, called the "garland". Then I can carve it into nice flowing curves. The advantage of this method over carving regular violin family tops is that all of the grain follows the surface. These tops can be made thinner for the same stiffness. So I've read!
OH! That scorching is typical! Nothing to be alarmed at. Its tough going bending 1cm thick spruce on the hot pipe. It'll carve out.
Yes, they really were built this way. The next two are the tricky ones as they have to be bent with a twist in them. I'm going to leave them like this to settle and hold their shape before jointing the edges and gluing them together. I'll have to check for springback as I don't want to build stress into the instrument's top.
The center is bent first, then the next two which continue the belly. The 3rd & 4th are basically flat. This won't quite make the full top, I'll have to add some wings for the very edge.
Once this is all assembled I can establish a nice flat bottom edge for gluing the top to the sides, called the "garland". Then I can carve it into nice flowing curves. The advantage of this method over carving regular violin family tops is that all of the grain follows the surface. These tops can be made thinner for the same stiffness. So I've read!
OH! That scorching is typical! Nothing to be alarmed at. Its tough going bending 1cm thick spruce on the hot pipe. It'll carve out.
1 comment:
I think we can safely say that this instrument will be well worth the wait - and the work. Very cool.
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