International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

I'm back in the shop and ready to continue work on my Lord Wilton violin after spending a few very enjoyable days attending the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis!  We posted some photos from the event on the Alf Studios blog.

Lord Wilton - Refining the Arching

Using a gouge, thumb plane, and scraper, I have cut the channel and refined the arching on the top and back plates:

A few more finishing touches on the channel and arching, and it is time to hollow and graduate the plates.

2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

I am excited to be attending the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis with Gregg during the week of September 20.  The Indianapolis Competition is one of the top competitions for violinists from around the world.  For more information, see the competition's website, blog, and Twitter account.

Gregg has once again selected to participate in the "Spotlight on Today's Makers" exhibition during the competition on September 25-26 and is busy completing several instruments that will be available for competitors and attendees to play.  More information and some "in process" photos are posted on the Alf Studios blog.

I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of great people, seeing a lot of great instruments, and hearing a lot og great music!

Top Plate Purfling and Making Scrapers

I have now completed installing the purfling on the top plate of my Lord Wilton violin, using the same process as was used with the back plate:

Now, it is time to cut the channel on both plates, refine the arching, and finish the surface.  Before doing that, however, I took some time out to make some scrapers to use in the process.  I had traced several useful scrapers from the shop onto card stock, and I used the metal from other scrapers (and a Stanley #80 scraper blade for one thicker scraper) as the material.  To start, I traced the shape from the paper template onto the metal with a Sharpie marker and used a cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool to roughly size the metal.  Then, I used a bench grinder to shape the metal close to the traced line (being careful not to overheat the metal by giving it frequent "water baths"):

I then refined the shapes right down to the line and corrected inaccuracies in the curves on a Tormek wet grinder:

Then, I used various grits of waterstones to get the final edge:

Now, with some new scrapers made, I am ready to finish the arching on my Lord Wilton plates.