On 26 Jan 2010, Francis Wood wrote: > I wonder when and why this older and better method was discontinued.
I don't know for definite, but I wonder if it has to do with professional saddlers, and the introduction of machinery. IIRC, and I am not in front of any notes I have on the subject at present, there was a saddler in Morpeth c. 1900 who was noted for the neatness of his bags. There was another in the Tyne valley (was that Forster Oram?) who made bags in the early / mid C20. I know that Boyce bags are hand-sewn, although to look at them this seems incredible, they're so neat. Are there any later Reid sets still with the original bag and what pattern are they? What did the Cloughs do? (I connect them with the Morpeth saddler in my head, though.....) What are Will Cocks' bags like? The inverted method may be historical and comfortable but it necessitates cutting the drone stock hole before sewing which seemed risky to me even before Francis admitted to having done it wrong, and the seasoning and tying on problems also would weigh with me. For the record I have made one "modern pattern" bag from scratch and yes, it is still in use, successfully. I agree with Barry that freeing the forearm is key to playing efficiency and comfort, but this depends so much on individual body shape and limb length that I would suggest there is no universal solution to an ideal shape / size for an nsp bag. Julia To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
