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This is one project that I need to brag about just a little bit and it is something that will only come around to me once in my lifetime. I’ve been doing woodworking since I was in high school and that hobby has branched into several different projects other than building bows.
The first of December I attended my aunt’s funeral. While at their house I asked my cousin what his Dad’s service serial number was so I could send for his records from the national archives for my genealogy records. When we went to the back room to look at his discharge papers I spotted something our Grandma had shown me a lot of years ago. It was her Dad’s fiddle and it was in pretty bad shape. At that point I was more interested in the fiddle than my uncle’s discharge papers and I offered to try and restore it. We bagged it up and I brought it home.
The fiddle is a Salzard and doing some some research I found out it was made in France in the 1860’s. Time and the elements had not been kind to it and the case. The case was in five pieces and the curved nose of the bottom was missing. The hide glue on the fiddle had dried out and turned to dust in several places. I decided to work on the case first.
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I stripped all the old ugly remnants of wallpaper that had lined the inside of the case and then made a new nose piece for the bottom by steam bending a piece of Poplar to fit. Then I cut strips of denim for reinforcement and glued the split top and bottom pieces back together. I lined the top with some red cloth and then put red crushed velvet in the bottom. That was some tough stuff to work with.
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Now I start work on the fiddle. It was a little daunting to work on a family heirloom that is 160 years old.
First I took off the strings, pegs, and tail piece and gave the wood a long needed cleaning. Then I opened the gaps on the bouts (sides) as much as I dares and worked epoxy into the gaps and clamped them together. I made a set of luthiers clamps to do this. I can find a use for them in my bow building.
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The finger board had fallen off of the neck and it had grooves worn into it from many years of play.
So I decided it needed a new one. I took some White Oak that I had salvaged from a large shipping skid at work and started work on it. Lots of carving and work with a cabinet scraper got me down to the right shape and size.
A coat of black stain and it’s ready to go.
A new set of strings made the job complete.
Now the final part. Re-hairing the bow.
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Since I really needed four hands I made a simple jig to clamp the bow in.
Then you shave the wedge down to fit in the tip.
Then you wedge the hair into the bow tip.
And trim the wedge flush with the plate.
Since the hair is put in ‘backwards’ it needs to be clamped to form it to go down the bow. It was a two hour job to get it to this point.
The next day you measure and tie the hair to fit in the frog. I wonder why it was named that??
After that you add some mild heat to shrink the hair and make it all a more uniform length.
It’s been a long journey from the first of December to today March 20 but Gt-Grandpa’s old fiddle will make a tune once again. A lot of the techniques I use in making bows and arrows helped me in this restoration and I learned some new things by doing this project for the family.
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That screw you see in the back is what caused the split. I used some epoxy and clamped it two ways pulling the two halves together and also against the base of the neck. Then, since the upper bout had fallen off it let me put epoxy along the joint inside for added strength.
No, I can’t play it but I sure wish I could. My cousin’s granddaughter has an interest in learning how to play it.
They are planning a family get together in Topeka sometime in July possibly. I will probably set up my video camera when I give it back to them.
A couple of more shots of the case. It was made of Spruce by a company called GSB.
This shows one of the denim shirt reinforcing strips and clamps and weights to hold everything in line.
The top of the case.
The fingerboard was actually four pieces of wood. The main body of it is Spruce and then the top and sides were added. Possibly Ebony. Ebony is used because it is smooth, good looking, and will last a long time. Yeah, it is very pricey. Any hardwood will work and I chose White Oak because it is more non porous and I have a bunch of it.
Old and new.
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