Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 116
Scan 116
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 90. See the scan on archive.org.
1gone over with the knife in order to deepen the grooves sufficiently to permit of the purflings being introduced in them; while guarding against pressing the knife too powerfully into the wood, especially in the case of spruce wood, lest it cut through the sound board.
3This work finished, the wood lying between the two grooves forming the purfling should be removed. This is easily done by means of a small purfling chisel or "picker," together with a fine awl. The awl is used in the places where its breadth is less than is the breadth of the groove. A chisel is given a sloping cutting edge on the grindstone resembling that of a marker chisel. It then becomes an actual purfling chisel, so-called, with which one may remove the wood that is to yield place to the purflings.
5In order to place the purflings in the grooves, one should begin adjusting them by cutting them lengthwise, with nibs, care being taken to cut them with the knife where they are to join the corners of the violin. This done, the next thing is to take two purflings at a time in order to introduce them at one and the same moment into the corners, after first having placed the glue necessary in the grooves. Once adjusted in the corners, the purflings are filled into the grooves adjacent to the corners, and driven home with short blows of the chisel. Below the small half-circle where the heel of the neck joins the body, and at the bottom of the large ribs, since the purflings must necessarily be joined to one another, and present the appearance of forming one sole piece, they must be cut on the bias, and very cleanly so that their point of junction is not remarked.
7One thing which it is very necessary to observe is that these purflings, before being used in the manner described, should be cut in such a way that they do not outpass the groove but very slightly.
9In order to cut them down to a height of 8 1/2 millimeters (a trifle over 1/3") a scraper should be made of a triangular file, with one tooth resembling the tooth of a saw, and this tooth must rise 1 millimeter (1/25") above the plane.
11The purflings are placed on the flat surface of the plane, the tooth is then placed on the purfling and the flat surface of the scraper on the planer, the toothed scraper is drawn from one end to the other of the shaving, as though one were using the tracer or the compasses. The same thing is then done on the other side, and the wood is cut. All that is now necessary is to separate the piece of purfling intended to enter the groove from the other with the finger.
13When the glue of the purflings has dried, whatever portion of them stands out too noticeably against the back or the sound board must be carefully removed. In order to do so, the larger portions are removed with the knife, guarding against chipping, while the scraper does the rest.
15The body of the violin has now been completed, with the exception of the edges of back and belly, which are still square instead of being round. One
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