contempory: so bearings in lignum vitae?
Marc
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Nogy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 10:11 PM
Subject: Re[4]: [HG] Now that I have some design parameters...the carved
body question
I have the same concerns, and nave never tried to push the limits of the
wood. I like to work in maple, cherry, and walnut, and there are
relatively hard and dense woods, but are prone to fracturing (especially
the hard maple).
So when I hollow out the body of an instrument, I leave some wood proud on
the inside (if I have the walls of the instrument hollowed to 3/16, for
example, I leave a 'hill' of wood that is 1/2 to 5/8 inch thick), centered
on the spot where the tailgut peg will go into the instrument. I try to
do a nice job of blending the extra wood in so there is no sharp corner
where it would be prone to breaking off. This has not failed me yet.
If I am going to carve the body of this instrument, I will leave the area
for the front axle bushing quite thick, and where the other string pins
are I will leave a solid flared strip of wood proud (from the belly to the
top) at each location. I will probably use walnut, and inlay either
padauk (yeah, I know it's not medieval, but after the orange tones down it
looks great with walnut) or maple veneer strips to make it look as if it
were glued up of 5 pieces, while maintaining the integrity of the full
carved construction.
I already have 2 soundboard blanks picked out, they are carpathian red
spruce and are really pretty.
For everyone else out there, what was the earliest example of ornate
rosettes and purfling that anyone has found? I know that cut soundholes
are present in the earliest of stringed instruments, but when did they
start getting really fancy?
Chris
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 2/24/2007 at 11:57 AM Karl Christoffers wrote:
Greetings Chris,
Just for the sake of completeness sake, and since I do
not think anyone else has mentioned it ...
In Marcello Bono's plans packet for the Bosch
hurdy-gurdy (purchased some time ago from Michael
Muskett), Marcello gives the builder three options for
the body of the instrument. They are: contemporary
lutherie construction (with curved back and belly),
carving the body out of one block of wood, and gluing
up smaller blocks of wood to give the mass of a carved
body without needing to start with a serious block of
seasoned wood. Marcello does not give any cautions in
the text to indicate there are possible problems with
any of the construction options for the builder or
player. I rather like the third method of gluing up
the body so I would not have short grain into which
the strings will be anchored at the tail of the
instrument.
However, since you have already carved instruments,
you already know whether short grain in the tail of an
instrument is a problem or not. Is it?
-Karl Christoffers
--- Chris Nogy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I have made several hollowed bodied instruments
www.nogy.net, look at the rebec or the crwth or the
citole or the lyre pages.
But this instrument, the citole from the Cantigas,
is one of the design starting points I am trying to
explore, as well as King David's Crwth, the gittern
from the British Museum, etc... These instruments
were popular and common body shapes, I assume that
it would not be out fo the question to build a gurdy
with a shape similar to other instruments that were
being built.
I am just really curious to know if this method has
any specific design characteristics that would make
it unsuitable for a gurdy (a medieval gurdy, not a
modern one).
I have wood in sufficient dimension and am
experienced in making a jointed body in his style as
well. I know that if it had to be a jointed carved
body, then it would have to be jointed in 3 sections
so that the axle would have the full support fo the
center. But for a smaller gurdy, which most of the
medieval illustrations I have seen seem to imply,
there are lots of species of hardwood that grow
large enough and can be seasoned well enough to do
this job.
Chris
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