THE SOUNDHOLES.
The next operation on the belly is cutting the _f_ or soundholes,
and I need hardly say (for it has been so often said, that surely
you must all be informed on this point), how the drawing, the
placing, and the cutting of this most crucial test of a man's powers
as an artist or workman, determines the extent of one or other, or
both; for a man may be the one, and show himself a blockhead as to
the other. You ask for originality, and you find copy, copy all over
the world; yet you may suddenly pounce on a line or two not seen in
combination before, most abominably in juxtaposition to their entire
opposites in curve as they are in grace as in character. For example
or examples, suppose I found, crowning the severe, almost rigid
column of the soundhole of Del Jesu, the mobile bend of Stradivari?
or, at the turn of the companion lines of Stradivari, the Gothic
arch of Del Jesu? with the base of each of a like nature--do you
think I should pass such without a severe growl of condemnation? And
yet I _have_ seen such; and I scarcely expect to go on to the end
without seeing more of such incongruous monstrosities, but I trust
not from any one who _can_ give one thought to character as applied
to form.
Fig. 13 is a rough example of the soundhole which I shall presently
stencil on to the belly just ready for it. As you will notice, the
soundhole is cut out of a piece of paper which follows the lines of
one of the lower corners. So, upon the corresponding corner of the
wood to be cut, I place this that represents the soundhole, exactly;
and I dip a small stiff brush into lampblack, not too wet, rather
dry than otherwise, and I dab on to the belly through the cut
impression of the soundhole--then I reverse the paper, doing exactly
the same at the other side of the wood. Of course, I know beforehand
that the impressions will be anything but perfect, or clear, or
alike; but I have a way of making them so in cutting, and you, many
of you, I hope, will soon acquire the same power. The general
feeling of active form, as I may say, must guide you; because, to
have the stencil plate by your hand as you seek to give vitality to
the dead form impressed on the wood, is one thing, but to copy it
slavishly, even though it be your own design, is another. In one
word, you must always _create_, no matter what work you are engaged
upon, and, in this case, two as original soundholes as lies in your
power, and resembling each other as much as you can cut them, but--
cut by an artist.
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.]
Proceeding to put you in the way of doing this, I bore a small hole
with the little piercer tool 0, and, inserting the fine cutter of
fret saw, tool 69, inside the belly, so that I have the upper side
to the eye, I press the said fine saw into the slot of the screw,
and, with spring pliers 51, I fix it for cutting. Then I hold the
belly with the left hand level against the lower part of my breast,
and cut out a rough passage round the inner part of the soundhole,
never touching the line, though, but leaving that for the knife 8,
which follows.
Where I must especially caution you in the use of this fret saw, is
at the upper and lower points which face the holes, as they are so
liable to snap there, especially at the lower. Still, with care, you
will manage to do this neatly and safely, as you see I have done
one, and now proceed to work with the knife mentioned.
This knife, as you see, is very much worn, and is very thin and very
sharp. And the two latter characteristics it _must_ possess, as you
will one and all of you find when you come to use such, for, as I
cut from the inside, the steel continually cropping up here and
there, in curves and near to corners, I must be prepared at any
moment to work up or down, backwards or forwards, with the grain or
against it, until I get somewhat of the shape I wish. But not nearly
all I want; so I trim the longer lines until they bend gracefully,
ready to fall as does the head of a rocket before it bursts, or give
a majestic sweep at the base where they terminate in the spread
wing. The apertures at the summit and base I round carefully off;
the cuts at the centre of the figure, as a break, as finish to what
was unfinished without it, and as a guide to determine the position
of the bridge.
And you will conclude this finishes the one soundhole; but it does
not, for after I have dressed down the work on the outside with No.
0 sandpaper, there is not a clean bit about it--not a curve or sweep
or any part true; and when I retouch it all over, and damp it all
over after doing that, when it dries, there are still bits I don't
like, and patiently trim it and touch it once or twice again, as I
have done to many a poem, to be, perhaps, only engraved in water, or
ice at the best; typical, not only of its reception by the world,
but of its ultimate starvation and ignominious effacement by the
coming warmth of an inspiration congenial to all.
This being at length quite to my mind, I cut its companion as true
to the lines of the other as possible, fig. 14, when I take in hand
the placing of the bass bar on the belly, in the rough, preparatory
to toning it down in shape, etc., when the glue has set hard.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.]