Making Violin #6

This week I was in Waterloo two days, so was able to make up some of the time lost to travel. Using a very sharp utility knife and hand-sketched lines, I extended the purfling grooves into the "C" bout corners. I have a very narrow chisel ground to the width of the groove, which is used to remove the waste once the edges are cut. It's a very detailed process. I used a head-mounted magnifier for all this work for the first time, and it made the process much more pleasant. The last time I hand-cut purfling grooves I could still see close enough, this time I couldn't have done it without the magnifier.

The groove near the tongue was marked out using a rounded scraper as the template. This scraper has almost the right radius, so I used it as an edge guide to cut the edges as well.

Fitting the purfling turned out to be fairly easy. The most challenging part is always getting exactly the right length so that the points are mitred cleanly.

Now that everything lines up nicely, I am reluctant to remove the purfling from the grooves to apply the hide glue. I'll try leaving them in place and making the glue quite fluid, then applying it with an eye dropper. This works for the Spruce front, I'm hoping that it soaks into the Maple back well enough to provide a strong joint.