Books › Violin making, 1902 › scan 51
Scan 51
Violin making, 1902
13 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 23. See the scan on archive.org.
1"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.
3This outline is my own, drawn by me after Stradivari, but not by any means a copy of that master. Dimensions are:—
5Length to where button joins the body 14 3/8 inches.
6Width of upper bout .. .. 6 3/4 "
7" " middle bout .. .. 4 3/8 "
8" " lower bout .. .. 8 5/16 "
10To 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.
12I 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
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