Books › Violin making, 1902 › scan 82
Scan 82
Violin making, 1902
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 38. See the scan on archive.org.
1the light, being again abominably rough, and not at all now like fig. 8, as the moisture has raised the fibres in all directions.
3But before I go farther into this interesting, consequently absorbing process, I must answer some question such as "but why use sand-paper? it is decried by most experts, and utterly ignored by some writers as having no status among the tools used by professional makers of note, and was not believed to have had a place among those of the Ancients."
5Then so much the worse for the work of the makers of to-day and for those of yesterday. But who says the ancients did not use it, or crocodile skin, or a cloth made in Venice, and somewhat after our emery cloth? or variously shaped files of different cuttings? At a time when sculpture and very chaste and highly finished woodwork would employ it largely, does any one mean to assert that the violin, not by any means held in the estimation it is to-day, must receive the dignity, of small plane and scraper only, and such a useful article treated with contempt because it was what it was? If they do, or any of you do, I should much like to devote an hour privately to any such, when it should be my business to combat such a sentiment, more especially as some writers seem to hint that when sand-saper is used, its scratchy effects can be traced, as I could bring many of my finest efforts to prove the contrary.
7My reason for not using small planes for modelling is, that in the first cutting you cannot possibly go over the delicate groove without endangering the surface level—
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.