|
Dear Fiddle and Bow Repair Students,
Welcome to the class. I'd like to explain a tentative schedule for our week
together so that you can best prepare yourselves to get the most out of the
class. Each day will have a morning and afternoon session focusing on a
specific repair procedure. This will be a fairly fast-paced demonstration
designed to cover the repair methods and the ideas behind them. Here's a
tentative schedule:
DAY
ONE: Morning: Bow preparation and rehair. Afternoon: Common gluing
procedures.
DAY TWO:
Morning: Removing a violin top; job cleanup. Afternoon: Cleaning,
gluing and cleating cracks.
DAY THREE: Morning:
Making a new soundpost. Afternoon: Dressing a fingerboard, making and adjusting
the nut.
DAY FOUR:
Morning: Making a new bridge. Afternoon:
Pegs and pegbox
DAY FIVE:
Gluing a top on; New bow tip.
The
rest of the day will be taken up with your own repair projects that you bring to
class. Keep in mind that time is limited, so try to bring in an instrument that
can be completed during the class time. We’ll try to get as much work done as
we can, but there are some jobs that are too big for the format of the class. I
plan to spend time with each of you getting you started on your repair projects;
those who are not immediately busy with a task may use this as an additional
demonstration. This part of the class time will be adapted to the specific
projects that you bring in.
I'm a
professional violin maker and restorer and use many tools especially made for my
trade. I realize that many of you may not want to invest in a lot of expensive
tools which you won't be using all the time. But I've assembled a list of tools
that might be considered an essential starter kit. It's not required that you
purchase the entire set, but you may be limited in the range of procedures that
you can do in class. You might already own some of these tools, or it is
possible that you can substitute a similar tool for one that is on the list.
Please feel free to consult with me by phone or mail on this matter.
RECOMMENDED TOOLS:
1.
Sharpening Stone. I prefer water
stones to those that use oil as a lubricant, but if you already have an oil
stone, don’t run out and buy a water stone for this class. As a single,
general-purpose stone, I recommend a combination 1000/6000 grit water stone,
Cat. number 09C3 1, available from Woodcraft Supply Co., 210 Wood County
Industrial Park, P.O. Box 1686, Parkersburg, W. VA., 26102-1686. Toll free
number: 1-800-225-1153.
2.
Wood Carving Knives. Set of four Swiss
Carver’s Knife blanks (#05S10) consisting of 3, 6, 12 and 19 mm knives. I'll
demonstrate how to sharpen and make wooden handles in class. If you don’t want
to buy the entire set, you’ll find the 3 mm (05S11) and the 19 mm (05S14) the
most useful. Available from Woodcraft.
3.
Steel Rule. 12" stiff rule with metric
and standard readings. Woodcraft, #O1C12).
4.
Block Plane. #9 1/2 Either Record
#02B20 or Stanley #17S62 will do. (It’s sometimes possible to pick up this type
of plane or its equivalent at a flea market or garage sale at a greatly reduced
price.
5.
Wooden Handscrew. Woodcraft (15J26),
used as a jig in bow rehairing.
Other
useful tools include wood files, chisels, metric tape measure, dividers and
other wood working tools. I will also put together a small parcel of supplies
that I’ll have for you to purchase in class. I'm looking forward to our time
together in class and also welcome hearing from any of you who have questions or
suggestions prior to the start of the workshop.
CHRISTOPHER
GERMAIN
1625 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.545.2500
info@germainviolins.com
|