Build a Violin
Hand-building a violin can be a very ambitious and very personal thing. Most violinists and instrument-makers appreciate the beauty in orchestral string instruments, especially the smallest of all of: the violin. Every violin has its own distinct sound, depending on the properties of the wood and your own style of carving the wood. It can be extremely satisfying to finally hear the distinct tone of your own home-built instrument. The following is a rough guide or outline of the process of violin-building. Books on this topic will help you further, but first, continue reading.
Steps
- Gather the wood. Most of a violin is usually made from spruce and maple. The back plate, the ribs (the bendy sides), and the neck are all made from maple. The front plate, usually spruce.
- You'll need a wedge of maple for the back, a block of maple for the neck, lots of strips of maple veneer for the ribs, and a wedge of spruce for the front.
- You'll also need to get hold of a 'form' and some smaller spruce blocks - the form is a block of wood curved like the shape of the violin body, to bend the maple around to form the ribs.
- The small spruce blocks go in the corners of the violin, to keep the ribs together and provide support.
- To get hold of all of these, ready-prepared, try luthier supply websites, such as [1] for the UK, or [www.ebay.com Ebay] for elsewhere.
- Use Google to your advantage.
- Prepare the wedges of wood. They have to be fully sawn down the middle, so they are split into two pieces that are only half as thick. They then have to be glued together at the ends so that they represent a plate of wood that can be cut out for the back and front plates. This must be done for both the front and back plates. View [www.violins.demon.co.uk/making/frontplates.htm] for more details.
- Start with the form and the corner blocks. Glue the small spruce blocks to the block-shaped orifices in the edge of the form. Use a file or a large gouge to file down these blocks so that they follow the curves of the edge, and form the corners of the violin shape.
- Start bending the maple veneer into the ribs. You can shell out a fair amount of money to buy a bending iron - a tool designed to bend the ribs, or you can use a household iron instead, though results will be inferior.
- You'll need 6 different bent parts, one for each space between blocks - top left, top right, middle left, middle right, bottom left and bottom right.
- If you're using an iron, you can use old pens or bits of wood, and rubber bands, to hold one end of each strip in place, as you 'iron' the rest of the wood around it. This will take some time.
- Careful with the middle bits, they will need to be bent before you put them on the form.
- When that's done, glue each strip to the block at each end, and trim the edges to that it's neat and tidy. Do NOT glue any of the ribs to the actual form, the form will be removed later.
- Start carving the front and back plates. This step will probably take a long time.
- Start by using some templates (you can draw around an existing violin, or look online for some templates and measurements) and roughly saw around your outline to get the general shape.
- You can file or sand down the edges to fit your lines. From there you have to carve it to the right shape and curve. The bottom of each plate must always remain perfectly flat, and the very edge must always be the same thickness all the way around (about 0.5cm).
- Use that as a guide line to gouge or file down the edges to the right thickness, and from there work down the outside of the plate to a pleasing-looking curve. The insides of each plate must also be gouged out, and must follow the contours of the outside.
- You can use a drill to help you with this, you can cut out most of the wood much faster.
- You must follow this whole process with both the back and the front plates.
- Cut out the F holes from the front plate with a drill and a small hacksaw - you should use a diagram for this. More experienced violin-makers will also embed purling into the front and back plates around the very edge. You will also need to put a "Bass bar" in the front plate - a bar of wood glued to one side of the inside of the plate, that follows the line of the lowest string. This is for better bass response.
- Carve the neck. You should use some diagrams to help you with this. The wrong length of neck could have disastrous effects on the intonation. Spend time smoothing and curving the scroll perfectly. You can use a drill to help you cut out the peg-box. Make sure it is perfectly smooth.
- Pry the blocks and ribs away from the form with a chisel or a flat-bladed screwdriver. File or gouge down the insides of each block to create a smooth curve with the rest of the inside of the ribs. Use your bending iron or household iron again to bend some very thin and narrow pieces of maple veneer, and use them to glue to the top and bottom of the inside of the ribs. This is for structural support, and to give the front and back plates something to glue on to.
- Glue the top plate to the finished ribs. Cut out a small section (shaped like the end of the neck) from the front block of the ribs and top plate for the neck to slot into. Keep working at this until the angle of the neck is just right.
- Glue on the back plate.
- Put on the peripherals. You'll need a soundpost, tailpiece, fingerboard, pegs, bridge, and strings. You'll also need a bow to play it with.
Tips
- If you don't have access to many of the tools required, or you don't want to spend years working on a home-made violin, try a violin kit - it has all the violin parts ready-made. Just put it together.
- Polish it for a glossy finish.
Warnings
- Don't rush any of these steps. You need to recognise that building a violin, or any instrument, is a very long, slow project, and taking your time will yield superior results.
Things You'll Need
- The wood. Look for luthier supply shops or websites.
- Tools - you don't NEED all of the right tools, sometimes improvising can do the job, but it does help to have some of the right tools. You need gouges, files, and saws. Electric tools are useful.
- A household iron, or a bending iron.
- Violin Peripherals - a soundpost, tailpiece, fingerboard, pegs, bridge, and strings
- A good book. The best one out there is "Art of Violin Making" by Chris Johnson, but it's extremely expensive. There are many available on Amazon, I used "Violin Making: A Guide for the Amateur" by Bruce Ossman for my first, it had all the diagrams, contour lines, and measurements I needed. There is also "Useful Measurements for Violin Makers" by Henry Strobel.
