Books › The Repairing & Restoration of Violins, 1903 › scan 22
Scan 22
The Repairing & Restoration of Violins, 1903
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1handy. Should the rapping or sounding all round the border not reveal any weak spot, we may be sure the seat of the complaint is to be sought for elsewhere; possibly there is looseness in the interior and therefore something requiring deeper consideration.
3We will for the present assume that there has been no uncertainty in locating the weakness, and that it is at the part before referred to as the most frequent in showing signs of disorder—the upper table losing its grip on the ribs. This is one of the many common ailments that are teasing to the violin during its troubulous career; a slight accidental tap, or hastily putting the instrument to rest in a too closely fitting case being often sufficient. Sometimes, on the reverse, it is from being in too large a one, getting well shaken while being taken home after some orchestral rehearsal; the joy of having mastered Mozart or battered Beethoven for an evening is turned in the morning to grief and vexation, when in response to the gentle persuasions of the bow there are but chatters and jarrings. Under such circumstances the treatment administered by the hands of non-practical or inexperienced people is akin, more often than not, to that popularly supposed to be effectual in suppressing slight functional disorders of the human system; namely, a prompt and appreciable dose of medicine for the one, a good stuffing of thick dark glue for the other. In both cases it may well be said that not unfrequently "the remedy is worse than the disease." Glue is a good thing in its way and when properly applied, but not so if overdone, even if the kind is the best obtainable.
5A few remarks may here be offered as to the qualities that should be present in good glue, especially with regard to violin repairing. Among the makers of it, the glue which will absorb the largest quantity of water ranks as the best. It will, after proper application, resist best the action of moisture in the atmosphere, or in fact take longer time before releasing the two surfaces it may have been holding in contact. There is not much difficulty in getting glue very satisfactory in most respects—as good animals die
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