The Repairing & Restoration of Violins Part 11

"Yes, it will be so much better for it, almost necessary."

The owner soon after departs, and the chief and his a.s.sistant proceed to work upon the violin. In general condition it happens to be very good, the one opening referred to being the time at which the modern bar had been attached in place of the very old and small-sized one.

The fingerboard being old is easily removed by a sudden pull or jerk.

After further cleaning with the aid of a hog-hair brush, this being adapted for getting more completely into the corners, both parts of the violin--they have both had a cleaning and looks more wholesome--are placed aside to dry.

When this has taken place to the satisfaction of both master and man, the back is rubbed over with an oiled rag, the object of this being to prevent the mould now to be taken from sticking to it.

Some good plaster of Paris is mixed, and a sufficient quant.i.ty placed on it till a coating an inch and a half in thickness is produced; this amount is necessary owing to the tendency to get out of form or warp if too thin, failures having often resulted therefrom.

When well hardened, this mould is lifted off; it comes away easily, showing a perfect facsimile in reverse of the back of the violin. This is carefully wiped, and any small specks of plaster that may be adhering are picked off.

The mould has now to be dried, as it would otherwise--from the large amount of moisture within it--undo the back, or any cracks that may have been glued up.

Placing in a moderately warm oven is as good a method as any, the natural drying by open air, even in sunny weather, being a long process.

After being tested and found to contain no moisture whatever, the mould is placed upon a bench, and the surface which has been in contact with the curved form of the back receives a slight oiling with a brush. This will prevent as much as possible injury to the varnished surface of the violin when placed in it. This may be further helped by a sheet of soft paper or soft cotton being placed between, when the back of the violin is laid in the mould.

Before proceeding further, there will necessarily be the preparations made in connection with the piece of veneer that is to be glued to the back.

In order that this may be as equally as possible pressed into the shape, there must be another mould made; this will be of some soft wood that will cut easily into shape, and be made to fit as near as can be to the back.

Next a layer or portion of cork about one-eighth of an inch thick, and large enough to cover the whole of the veneer, will be required. Some repairers would prefer india rubber or other yielding substances, which will fit into any unevenness while sustaining great pressure.

This last will be caused by the press or large cramp, which must be very strong.

All the foregoing being ready to hand, the veneer being cut down to the amount required, perhaps to a pencilled line marked on it for width and length, it will be wetted; being of slight substance, it will soon absorb sufficient moisture to remain damp during and over the time the other preparations are made.

All being in readiness, the back being laid down accurately in its bed of hard plaster of Paris, the cloth or paper having been placed between, the cleansed and dried surface of the table is brushed over with the strong glue which, if the apartment is of sufficiently high temperature, will not coagulate or set, but give time for the brus.h.i.+ng of glue on one side of the veneer. This is at once placed in position on the glued surface of the violin table; it is then covered with some thin, soft paper, the cake of cork or india rubber being laid over it. More carefully than all, the carved piece of wood that is to be pressed down must be exactly in its right place, and above this, other slices, so that the pressure may be distributed well, and not merely on one spot.

For this a goodly pile will be of advantage; to be quite scientific in its proportion, an imaginary line drawn from the central point of the pressure above to the outside or margin of the field of pressure at the lowest part, should not be at more than an angle of forty-five degrees.

Attention being paid to the foregoing, and the press or large screw cramp being already in position, the pressure, which must be great, is applied.

The glue will be seen oozing out between the surfaces of the table and its veneer; this can be wiped off easily, and save the trouble of removal when dry and hard.

Necessarily, a longer time will be consumed in thorough drying and hardening in a case like this than in an ordinary repair in which the atmosphere can more readily obtain access. When quite ready, the pressure and the pieces of wood, paper, cork, or indiarubber can be one by one released, and the simple veneer, now firmly attached to the lower table of the violin, can have its edges trimmed round with gouge, chisel, or sc.r.a.per, and finally gla.s.s-papered to a good finish.

When neatly done, the edging of the veneer will decline gradually in thickness, and die off all round.

There is nothing further to be done now, but seeing that the bar is right in proportion, position, and fitting.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BAR IN OLDEN TIMES--THE MODERN ONE--THE OPERATION OF FITTING AND FIXING THE BAR--CLOSING AND COMPLETION OF THE REPAIRS--VARNIs.h.i.+NG OF THE REPAIRED PARTS HAVING FRESH WOOD.

Much false reasoning upon insufficient premises has at times on and off been bestowed upon the subject of the bar and its supposed mysteries.

s.p.a.ce at command will not allow of a dissertation on this detail of the const.i.tution of the violin. A few remarks will perhaps be sufficient for present purposes. When violins were first sent forth by their inventor, Gasparo da Salo, the bar was sometimes omitted, possibly in all the earliest ones, the strain on the upper table being then slight as compared with that of the present day--at others it was very short and weak. The substance of the upper table was considerable, and much over that which the later and modern makers approve of, and thus there was a counter-balance.

At the present time still stronger bars are inserted, and very frequently without rule or reason. Occasionally a coa.r.s.e bar will allow of good results as regards the emission of the tone, the length and thickness happening to be suitable to the proportions in detail of the instrument. A weakness at each end of the bar is an oft-recurring cause of bad going with regard to the vibrations.

From this we may infer that when the bar was first thought of and inserted it was simply with an idea of supporting the part over which the third and fourth strings were stretched, and that as the tension of the strings became greater in consequence of the rise in the pitch, so the bar had to be increased in strength, that is, longer and deeper.

The discovery or unearthing of an old master in its original condition will therefore be followed by the opening and re-barring for the emission of the tone according to modern ideas; these may be summed up as the getting of the largest amount of tone accompanied by freedom of vibration or ring.

As the removal of a defective or weakly bar and its renewal and fixing in accordance with the best knowledge of the subject is an operation that should be seldom attempted by other than an experienced professional repairer, it may be as well to pay another visit to our chief and his a.s.sistant, James.

After some lapse of time we find on looking in at the establishment that there is no perceptible change in the working or general routine; violins innumerable have come and gone and still seem likely to do so for ever.

The chief has been occupying a few minutes looking through a newspaper, not so much in connection with his business, which, as no doubt will have long since been perceived, is a private or personal one, he is simply keeping up with the times in reading about what is going on outside his own little world.

James, notwithstanding his lesser amount of artistic and scientific knowledge than the chief, has been steadily improving in his own way, that of implicitly following directions put forward for his guidance and given with so many axioms, the result of long experience and watchfulness. It is a warm day and really heavy work would not be to the disposition of either master or man.

Looking through the doorway into the workshop at the back, James can be seen sitting as quietly and contentedly as his master in the front.

He is engaged on some fitting of small pieces into some fractures of the upper table of a Stradivari. Having been told to do them neatly, cleanly and with every precaution, experience and deft handling of tools, he has got these latter into nice cutting order. The finest and even semi-transparent shavings will have to come from the fractures and the portions of wood to be inserted therein. James has by this time acquired considerable neatness in the treatment of "delicate jobs,"

as he calls such as the present. His tools have had special attention in the keenness of their edge and he thinks that when all is finished the violin will be as good as new, and very little of the damage done while in charge of the owner will be perceptible unless hunted for.

He argues within himself that the greatest amount of expenditure of muscle work and fitting together of ever so many parts has been done by himself, and therefore the honour ought to be princ.i.p.ally his, in fact the fiddle is more of his make than that of old Strad. His ruminations are stopped rather suddenly by the voice of the chief, who calls out, "I say, James, what about the re-barring of the Maggini that Miss Winks left a week back?"

"Well, sir, she called again yesterday, and said she didn't think it would be done, because we seemed slow people, but intended to call again in three days."

"Perhaps you had better set to work, James. Have you got everything ready for placing the bar?"

"Yes, sir, everything except the bar itself, which is not cut to shape yet."

"Well, let me see it. Is it of nice straight grain and from the stock of that old Italian?"

"Yes, I've picked out a piece that appears to me just the thing; it only wants the curve cutting to fit the upper table, and that is quite clean and regular without any slips of the tool in cutting the old one out, which I think was the original one."

The chief gives two or three glances over the work, his accustomed eye being ready to catch any little fault likely to have been made by his man.

"That surface, James, for a Maggini, is remarkably even; as often as not the gouge marks are left, making a close fit of the bar an impossibility, let me see the bar."

The piece of wood is produced; the Maggini being a full fourteen inches in length of body, the proposed bar is cut to ten and a half inches in length and seems to the chief to be satisfactory.

"You can now go on, James; let me see the bar before you glue it in."

The upper table of the Maggini and the bar are taken away by James, who goes at once to work with the necessary preparation for placing the bar in position correctly.

With a rather soft lead pencil he marks off the length from each end of the table that the bar will occupy, that is, a little over at the lower end than the upper, the exact distance from the joint or central line, a trifle, perhaps eighth of an inch nearer at the upper part, letting the middle or thickest part of the bar be at the spot where the foot of the bridge will rest.

After this the bar, at present straight and about three-quarters of an inch high all along its course, has marked upon the part that has to remain uppermost some indication to the fancy of the operator that will keep in mind which end is to be placed at the upper part.

This being done, he commences with a chisel to cut away portions at each end, and tries on the surface of the part to be fitted to. After two or three times the chiselling has to be more finely done until the closest fit possible is obtained; it is then ready for fixing. The bar is as yet quite straight along the upper part. With regard to the levelling of the bar to the curve of the interior part of the upper table, there used to be a custom in the repairing business of "putting the bar in with a spring" as it was termed. The repairers always spoke of it as "the regular thing to do," but on being asked questions as to how much and under what circ.u.mstances the "spring" would be best one way or the other, became somewhat reticent, possibly from fear of being led into some scientific depths from which it might not be easy to extricate themselves. James, however, has been taught differently in the management of this portion of his work; he having found from close examination that the rise of the curving on the outside on the bar side was quite high enough, went on with the operation.

Had the bar side been in a sunken condition, his chief would have required him to restore the elevation by the wetting process before alluded to.

The accessories, glue and cramps being in readiness, two pieces of thick hard brown paper are folded together to go over the varnished surface of the upper table. This will be quite thick enough, as any more will cause a liability to press the bar into the wood when under the influence of the damp of the glue. This result is often seen in violins that have been through the hands of inexperienced repairers, there being an elevation at each end where the bar terminates when the violin has been strung up.