THE BACK.
I naturally suppose you will supply yourselves with two
benches--good, strong, English made, workmanlike things, one of them
to be fitted with a single vice, the other with a double one, for
joints, and for some work requiring such. And that you will get such
tools as will be requisite from time to time for your work.
[Illustration: Illustration of Tools used in Violin Making by Walter
H. Mayson.]
Then do me the honour of marking very closely how I set about my not
too easy employment; for if you follow my ways, you will do well to
observe every turn of them; remembering that every part of the
building of this little, though mighty, shell is of great
importance, and that there is nothing trivial about it.
A prudent and watchful general will be very careful to see his rear
is clear of the enemy before he makes an advance after an
engagement; so I remember I have to speak to you of wood "on the
quarter" and "on the slab" before we go farther.
If you select a large orange, and take it entirely to pieces, you
will have by you, without any farther illustration from me, my exact
meaning of "on the quarter."
For, when a tree is cut into parts for the violin, it is sawn
equally in half, first; then each half into two quarters, and so on,
exactly as is the orange subdivided; this is, I hope, clear to you
as "on the quarter." I need hardly add that the broad edges, which
you join afterwards, making the wood for the upper or lower table
look like the roof of a house, are at the outer part of the tree,
springing from the centre, where are the broadest rims, as is
natural, seeing that youth is there, vigorous and full of sap;
whilst the rims decrease to the outer, or bark part, in some cases
very decidedly in width, in others more slowly. So you may gather
from this why we have the narrow bait, or reed, where the bridge
comes, the open reed at the edge. At least, I hope you can see the
reason, which is, as generally admitted, and is certainly _my_ view
of the matter, the strength is most wanted at the centre of the
violin, as at the bridge, which the closeness of the reeds and
narrowness of cell passages would supply. The broad reed is more
volatile, and we put it to the edges, where it throws off the
gathered activity of resonance, recurring so rapidly, which we
increase by reducing the thickness of the plate there, bringing
about that timbre so rich to the ear of the listener. These remarks
apply to the belly, and are offered "on the quarter" only. Wood "on
the slab" is never used for the front table in any case, as, cut
that way, it would be far too weak.
For "on the slab" means that our orange and our tree are cut
_through_ the rings or reeds in flat layers of equal thickness (as
required); and it is at once obvious that, in the upper plate, would
be not only ugliness of broad, irregular figure of wood, with now
and again snatches of the bait as it should be, and as I have
endeavoured to show it is; but apart from its general weakness, it
would be most irregular as the main vibrator or soundboard, so is
entirely discarded.
But both ways of cutting are employed for the back; I have heard
tone as fine from one as from the other, yet I think, as a rule, I
prefer the quarter to the slab, as being somewhat more resonant and
of finer timbre.
At the last moment I have selected the "brother" of my "Elephanta"
violin--I mean its back--in one piece, but on the "quarter" in
preference to the one on the "slab," so we will now proceed to
active work upon it.
I clamp the selected wood to this bench, having the flat side
uppermost, and so that I can plane it to a perfect level surface,
first at the narrow end, then at the broad, but _across_ the wood,
as, being sycamore, it is very liable to cut very roughly if done
lengthwise. This I do with a twenty-two inch trying plane, and
having done it to my mind, I take cork rubber, as shown on
illustration of tools used by me, No. 67, and rough sand paper, No.
2-1/2, maker's number, and proceed to scour it level--smoothness is
not essential.
With compasses 55 (again referring you to tool plate, as I shall
often have to do), I find the centre of the wood at both ends, and I
make a dot at each, then draw a distinct line down this centre,
having placed a straight edge EXACTLY over each dot. And I must
insist on this "exactly" wherever exactness that is only a
mechanical result can be obtained; in the present instance, mind,
any deviation from this base of operations, as I may safely say,
will land you in no end of difficulties, as everything must be
"square with the fiddle," as we have a habit of saying, though the
whole is a matter of curves and lines, there being nothing of
squareness about it. Having drawn this decided line, I take my half
outline, plate 1, and place it exactly where, by tracing close to
the side of it, touching every turn so that there can be no mistake
hereafter, nor any "dog leg" nor broken curve, I reverse the veneer
(the outline is of veneer) and do exactly the same as before, and
you see the whole violin drawn, except that the button at the top of
the instrument is in a rough state, and is not finished until the
neck be added at the last. Plate 2.
[Illustration: PLATE I.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.]
This outline is my own, drawn by me after Stradivari, but not by any
means a copy of that master. Dimensions are:--
Length to where button joins the body . . 14-3/8 inches.
Width of upper bout . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3/4 "
" " middle bout . . . . . . . . . . 4-3/8 "
" " lower bout . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5/16 "
To be certain that my work is correct, I will prove it (for _you_
will have to do so when you begin), ruling a line from one upper
point of lower corner to the other; and from one lower point of
upper corner to the other, which gives you a square at each end of
middle bout.
I take compasses and place the point of one leg on square centre of
broad end, and, opening until the point of the other leg touches
lower point of upper corner, I describe a curve to opposite point;
and I turn the back bottom to top, repeating the same to prove lower
corners true. And both stand the test thoroughly.
The next stage, rough as it appears in Plate 3, after cutting, will
require great care on your part, or you will spoil your back; please
note how it is done by me. I fix it in the double vice, the flat
side, where is drawn the outline, facing me as I sit before it on a
high stool. With saw 68 in my hands, drawn up taut by the slip of
wood at the top tightening the string it controls, I proceed to cut
from the top _straight_ down by the button, until I meet the line
forming the upper sweep of the back. But you will observe how very
careful I am as I prepare to turn the saw from straight to right
angle (which is really at left curve at the button). I grease the
saw well, turn it at both handles, so that when I again put the saw
in motion, the steel lies flat, edges or teeth to the left, the
frame of the saw upright.
[Illustration: PLATE III.]
I hope I have made this sufficiently plain, and that what I have
said will enable you to go well round the violin back, guarding the
corners, always greasing your saw as you prepare to round them,
rather giving them a wide berth than brushing close past, almost
touching the line, in a hurry, when snap may go your steel or a
corner of the back.
As intimated, you must clear the line by one-sixteenth inch, so that
no risk is run by taking too much wood off, cleverly put on again,
when matched by an expert, but which could hardly be done by you
just yet.
Well, as you see, I have cleared the rough back from the main body
of the still rougher oblong wood, and it must now be my business to
cut this rough outline to its true form, which is done by looking at
the flat side where this pencil outline is, and with a very sharp,
flat-ground knife, specially made for violin makers, tool 19. But
before this is done, the main body must be reduced at the edges, on
the convex or outer side, of course, to about the thickness of
three-sixteenths of an inch good, which is a simple matter, if done
with one and a quarter inch gouge 43, in this manner.
In the middle of the bench, which will be your general one, and five
inches from the edge, cut a one-inch square right through the wood,
and fit a long stop therein, the tighter the better, and somewhat
rounded off at the inner corner facing you. This will serve to keep
one end of back or belly rigid when the other end is provided for,
as I do thus:--About fifteen inches from this square top, and to
your right, clamp down a piece of hard wood, three inches broad, and
a quarter of an inch thick, square with the bench, and on both
sides. Then cut a square hole in it, five inches from bench side, to
enable you to allow the rough button to lie whilst you operate on
one side of the back, then on the other. This, as you must see,
enables the wood upon which you are to work, perfect freedom from
obstruction of any sort, whilst the gouge cuts roughly all round, as
shown in plate 3.
So, leaving the convex side as it is for the present, I resume, as
to cutting to the true outline with the knife. You can begin where
you like, but I generally clear the right side first. I cut through
the pencil line, not entirely obliterating it (which you will not
find easy), because, after awhile, I have to efface it altogether
with a file, to a perfect, smooth line. These square corners--these
curves of top, middle, and lower bouts--all and everything must be
well done, and no one thing outside of beauty left for the critical
eye to gape at.
Turning the plate to the outer side, I press it flat, between the
square let into the bench and the three-inch slip clamped about
fifteen inches apart, as spoken of before. This is done so that it
may be rigid whilst I take one-inch rasp 47, and proceed to level
all round the wood to about five-eighths of an inch and
five-thirty-seconds of an inch deep. When I get to the ends of the
back I loosen the wood, and use the file more freely at the end of
the bench. But this is a matter left entirely to the workman. When
this is nicely done, I wet a sponge and damp all I have gone over,
surface and edge alike, and let it thoroughly dry, and when it is
so, I employ medium cut file 63, half round, seven-eighths of an
inch broad, and make the edge of the wood clean, and so even all
round, that my first finger or thumb passes over the surface without
a suspicion of irregularity suggesting itself. This, mind, must be
most carefully done, as otherwise, if you, to make both ends meet,
so to speak, take off _here_ a morsel too much, and a little extra
_there_, to repair your fault, thinking to improve your line, you
will find it _broken_, and no longer in uninterrupted movement, as
it should be. I would rather see almost anything bad about this
noble instrument than a slovenly outline, for it is not only ugly in
itself, but leads to other imperfections, and should be most
strongly condemned in the modern school; it will most certainly be
by me, should a school spring from this book, as is already spoken
of as most likely.
The line being right, I next see to the flat edge being strictly of
one thickness all round, which I get to my mind by using a cork
rubber-tool 67, and about No. 1 sandpaper--maker's number. You can
be sure of this correctness by using a sawyer's circular round
gauge--and you had best do so.
Now, gentlemen, this brings me to