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(2 votes) 
Regulars
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Picked up this violin that will be a challenge to say the least.
The repairs made to it are scary.
The neck is broken loose and wedged.
The homemade peg is awesome to say the least.
The tailpiece was rigged after the holes tore out.
And then there’s the bow. Glued and wrapped and coated with more glue
Regulars
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OMG, @steveduf, you should have us voting on our favorite repair:
- The bow tip mummy wrapping
- The tailpiece gun trigger
or
- The kitchen spoon peg.
Seriously, if you get this poor lad fixed up, I do truly want to see the results!
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Holy Smoke @steveduf - and I thought I liked a challenge.... 
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I had an anxious moment, thinking that bocaholly’s recent trek into diy went south.
Very interesting adaptation of a baroque tailpiece. Looks like fingerboard was wedged for more projection (that repair looks decent). A spline joint down the center of the bow head and the insertion of a thin slice of ebony (or similar) should correct the bow.
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. —Werner von Braun
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa
Experience is a difficult teacher, it gives the test first and the lesson after.
Regulars
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It is actually another mosaic, once I reset the neck I’ll decide if it needs the wedges, the mosaic needs a few pieces replaced. I started fixing the bow, it has a silver tip guard. I cleaned the glue off with acetone, clamped the pieces and glued them. I am rigging up a saw to cut in a spline. The bow needs straightened also. Not sure if bow is worth it or not but I wanted to try just for the heck of it. As I do the project I’ll post pics and updates.
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Is that pic with the blurry bow tip already reattached?
On other fronts, that mosaic makes me think our violins could be distant cousins. I wonder how many regions produced that kind of simple inlay. Was it done everywhere at the time or only in certain locations?
Regulars
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It’s attached but needs a spline for strength
this is our other mosaic
not sure of the background of these
Regulars
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Steve, an idea for you. Harbor Freight makes a saw blade sharpener that takes about a 4 inch diameter diamond blade. I purchased a few “scratch and dent” examples for $20 each. If you replaced the blade with a thin metal cutting blade with fine teeth, it would be fairly easy to make a bow head holding jig for the cut.
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. —Werner von Braun
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa
Experience is a difficult teacher, it gives the test first and the lesson after.
Regulars
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Tore the old girl down last night, the top was repaired badly.
The top is hand carved, you can see the gouge marks, the bass bar is carved as one piece with the top. It is actually quite rough looking. There are only two corner blocks.
You can see where no one cleaned up the old glue that oozed after putting it back together.
i cleaned that up first as you can see in the pictures.
Regulars
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Before and after glue and grime clean-up
Regulars
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great improvement on the outside of the C bouts... impressed.
That sound post crack patch is scary.
Exciting to watch what you're doing. Thanks for sharing the evolution (hint, hint, please keep us in the picture 🙂
Regulars
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Hi bocaholly. The patch is too low on the bout to involve the sound post (which is situated approximately midpoint on the f holes). Cleats are typically used because they have less mass. The current patch is a rather useless repair since the wood grain is running parallel with that of the plate (one split will force the other to accompany it in defeat).
I have heard of, but never seen an example, of the bass rib carved from the same piece of wood with the front plate. That is the way violins were made “back in the day” when good wood was plentiful and time had little relevance.
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. —Werner von Braun
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa
Experience is a difficult teacher, it gives the test first and the lesson after.
Regulars
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Irv said
Hi bocaholly. The patch is too low on the bout to involve the sound post (which is situated approximately midpoint on the f holes).
Stand corrected
Will beef up on my violin geography. Next thing you know, I'm going to be stringing my violin like this:
