Commissioned Progress Report: 5-String Fiddle

When I last posted, it was to explain my neck and scroll procedure on the commissioned fiddle. Before that, I had left the project with both plates partially carved. The garland was complete, but with linings on the front side only.

Front Plate Procedure

So, moving forward, the next thing was to complete the front plate. I explained to the Customer who commissioned the fiddle that the white band up the middle of the plate would disappear under the varnish. This instrument is unusual in that it has a front plate made of Douglas Fir.

Once the arching was nearing correct values, I carved most of the interior and then began laying out f-holes and purfling lines. The Douglas Fir is extremely difficult to work with, because the winter reeds are incredibly hard, while the summer reeds are nearly as soft as spruce… so the knife tends to follow the winter reed, instead of your intended path, making it very difficult to cut a smooth line.

beginning to carve the interior — Beginning to carve the interior of the Front Plate. This part was not too hard.

checking the depth — Checking the depth of the hollow. There is still work to do on the outside, so I have to be careful.

Purfling Procedure

rough purfling due to hard fir sound plate — Rough beginning for purfling and sound-holes.

It was discouraging seeing how rough my beginning looked. Especially for a commissioned instrument! But, as things progressed, I was able to clean up my lines a little and they began to look more acceptable:

Inner line of purfling completed, but very rough, on commissioned fiddle. Fortunately it improved later. — Inner line of purfling completed.

Outer Purfling for the Commissioned Five String

And then, The outer purfling. I was being careful to not inlay the purfling too deeply, for fear of causing problems, but that meant the purfling did not want to stay in the slots by itself, while the glue set. So I had to clamp it down until the hot hide glue gelled and set up.

clamping purfling while glue sets. — Clamping purfling while glue sets.

But it looked pretty good after I planed it flush with the Douglas Fir.

Double purfling on Douglas Fir Soundboard for a commissioned five string fiddle by Chet Bishop, artisanal Luthier in Oregon — Outer line of purfling completed. Notice the pilot holes for the f-holes have been drilled.

When the interior and exterior were correct, I could finish cutting out the f-holes.

Beginning to cut out f-holes for a Commissioned 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — Beginning to cut out f-holes.

F-holes completed but rough, on Commissioned five String Fiddle — F-holes completed but rough. as the next few days went by, I kept returning to the f-holes with small files and perfecting the shapes.

I forgot to take pictures of the sequence of steps installing the bass bar on the commissioned instrument. I constructed it of Douglas Fir, to match the top plate, and chalk-fit it to the correct location inside the plate. After the glue was dry I shaped it to the correct height, thickness and curvature.

(There are a couple of links in the above paragraph to other builds, where I did remember to take pictures…sorry for the inconvenience!)

Then, after completing the inside scraping and edge preparation, I installed the front plate, using hot hide glue and spool clamps.

Front plate installed, with neck, fingerboard and back plate for Commissioned 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — Front plate installed, with neck, fingerboard and partially completed back plate.

Next time, I will show the procedures for setting the neck, completing the back plate and closing the corpus.

Thanks for looking!

Slower Progress:

(I actually got a fair amount done, though…)

A few weeks ago, I bookmatched my plates. Then I cut ribs and necks, so as to set up “kits” for six new five-string fiddles. Afterward, I started building two of them, as parallel builds.

Since I last posted, two weeks ago, I did not exactly stay on schedule, but I didn’t get too far behind.

Scroll Carving

I had already completed the first scroll and neck, and had begun working on the second neck, when, I “kinda took an unplanned detour.”

carving pegbox for five string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon my Chet Bishop, luthier. — Heavy wood removal from pegbox interior.

sawing out scroll on 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, luthier. — Beginning the saw-carving of the scroll

Saw-carving the scroll for a 5-string bluegrass fiddle, handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop. luthier. — Saw-carving the scroll.

scroll for 5-string bluegrass fiddle, handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, luthier. — Scroll nearing completion

Then I Had a Small Mishap:

I had worked for 12 hours, Monday the 16th, and afterward, I felt pretty tired. Consequently, I had tired hands: Probably I had a tired brain, too, I suppose… anyway:

I had begun carving the second scroll. I completed the saw-carving part, and I was removing waste wood, with a small gouge, when, I slipped. annnnd, just happened to have my left hand in the path of the misdirected gouge. (sigh…)

Urgent Care? Emergency Room?

First we tried going to an Urgent Care clinic. We arrived there, and then discovered that (a) they only work by appointment, and (b) they don’t take medicare insurance, anyway. Accordingly, I asked what my options were, and they said: “Everything else is closed! Go to the ER!” (Sigh… very expensive option!)

So, about 30 minute later we arrived at the Emergency Room at Saint Vincent Hospital. They were busy as usual, so we waited for about four hours. But after that, the ER people washed it out with sterile water, X-Rayed it to eliminate the possibility of torn bone or tendons, and applied two little “Steri-Strips!”

I guess that was normal, but it felt pretty “exposed,” and was very prone to bumps (which were pretty uncomfortable when they happened.) So, after we got home, Ann bandaged me up with a heavily padded dressing so that I could sleep without bumping it. That was a real help, and, as a result, I slept well.

However, I kind of puttered around, the next day…partly too tired, I suppose, as we had arrived home somewhat after 3AM, and we got to bed after 4AM. Partly, I was just not feeling real good. Anyway, I had other things that needed doing, so I didn’t work on fiddles for that day.

Red Violin beginning? This was the second scroll, in progress when I slipped.

Back to Work!

I got back to work on Wednesday. It turned out that I really needed two hands for most things, so it slowed me down rather badly, having a bulky bandage on the left paw. However, I was finally able to get the fingerboard installed on the first scroll/neck so that I could shape them as a unit.

Fingerboard installed for 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, luthier — Fingerboard installed the second day after the injury.

That was kind of encouraging, seeing some progress again.

neck and fingerboard with five-string fiddles by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — Neck #1 with the two completed front plates and garland assemblies.

back plate and neck assembly with dive string fiddles by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — I had also traced and cut out the back plate for fiddle #1. (Big Leaf Maple: Pretty stuff!)

Then I set the neck on fiddle #1:

cutting neck mortise in 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, Luthier — Beginning the neck mortise. Notice the hard, heavy winter reeds in the Douglas Fir front plate.

cutting the neck mortise on a 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop. Luthier. — The cut-out in the front plate for the neck mortise.

completed neck mortise in 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — Completed neck mortise

neck set completed in 5-string bluegrass fiddle, handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop, Luthier. — Completed Neck-set. (Back of the neck heel will still have to be sawn off.)

Healing up!

After that, we had appointments with various people, so I didn’t get a lot done on Thursday or Friday. By the time the weekend had rolled around, I had the biggest bandages off, and was sporting a plain finger bandage, but I had to be pretty careful. Bumps were still pretty unpleasant.

So, after having removed the bulky bandage, I went back to work on fiddle #2, carving that “Red Violin” scroll into just a plain, “five-string fiddle scroll.” It looked as though the majority of the “gore” would simply be carved away: so, no “Red Violin!” (By the way, that little gouge, third from the right, is the one that perforated my thumb.)

scroll nearing completion for a 5-string bluegrass fiddle handmade in Oregon by Chet Bishop. Luthier. — Second scroll nearing completion.

I will post more again, soon. Sorry for the hiatus: it wasn’t intentional. 🙂

Thanks for looking.

Tag: Douglas Fir front plate

Commissioned 5-String Fiddle: How To Make Progress