Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 101
Scan 101
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
20 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 75. See the scan on archive.org.
1It might be observed here that maple or plane wood is very hard to plane, probably because of its fibre, and care must be taken not to attack it too heavily with the steel of the plane, and to remove the wood only in thin shavings, since otherwise, if the planer is handled too vigorously, splits may result, which would mean beginning the work all over again, seeing that in such case the wood might as well be thrown into the fire.
3At times the wood is so difficult to plane (and, as a rule, this applies to the best veined wood) that hardly any use can be made of the ordinary plane. In such case the tooothing plane should be used.
5We have already mentioned that the sheet of wood in course of preparation should be reduced to a thickness of 1/25 of an inch although the ribs or sides are not exactly of this size. The sides, in addition, should be scraped in order to give them the necessary smoothness, and to do away with the small inequalities which the plane, especially the tooothing plane, may have left.
7The sheet having thus been scraped with greatest care, in particular as regards the side which will be on the exterior of the instrument, the beam compasses should be taken, and, setting the points about 35 millimeters (1 1/3") apart, a line should be drawn the entire length of the sheet. By means of the knife this piece is then separated from the sheet of wood, and the operation is continued until the sheet of wood has been divided into three distinct pieces.
9Then, taking a strip of paper, one should measure on the mold which is already provided with its blocks and corners, the outline of the circle which, in the narrow part of the violin rises at the central line of the mold and terminates between the two points of the two corners. With a second strip of paper the interior outline comprised between the points of the two corners. This part is the C bout or inner bout.
11With a third strip of paper the outline of the point of the interior corner of the instrument as far as the central line of the mold is measured and this will yield the proportion of length for each part of the ribs.
13After having placed each of these strips of paper on the three planed pieces of wood, prepared as has already been described, one must cut by the rule two pieces of a length corresponding to that of each of the strips of paper, and the ribs or sides are completed. All that is left to do is to pound them.
15It is well to cut these pieces of plane wood somewhat longer than the paper models, to avoid the possibility of getting them too short; since, once they are too short, the defect cannot be remedied; while, even if they are a little longer, no harm is done, as they may be shortened.
17One should not forget to cut the ends of the ribs which are to meet at the point of the four corners neatly and exactly on the line.
19We have omitted mentioning that after having separated into three pieces the sheet of wood of which the sides of the ribs are formed, and which has been described, the sides of the three pieces in question should be smoothed
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