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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
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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.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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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?
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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.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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.
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Before and after glue and grime clean-up
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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 🙂
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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.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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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:
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bocaholly said
Stand corrected
Lmao, also need to fit that bridge a little better to the top
tore off the old patch, it was also cracked above the f hole, got both glued, and the top cleaned a little.
the crack isn’t perfect, but considering the old glue and such, it’s not too bad.
next up are the cleats
going on. Need to have to find some abalone to repair the mosaic, my MOP doesn’t match, might use a local pen shell instead
Regulars
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It is so much easier to repair a crack the first time than the second, since glue does not adhere to glue.
Steve, have you considered using a bit of leather under the clamp to avoid denting the wood?
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
Regulars
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Never thought about it, I did a trial before I glued, the angle made it rough and I had to shim the outside edge a little to get it to align. I ran sandpaper between the two pieces to get it cleaner and help align the pieces better.
going to look fairly well.
Regulars
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You're right, Steve, (girly opinion) that MOP disc you show isn't a great match. What's the black background made of? If it's reproducible, I think a more discrete mosaic repair could be done by filling in with that stuff.
If you or Mack have your heart set on MOP, they sell it on Etsy, a few dollars for a dozen or so little discs like yours... and some is more colorful and translucent.
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Looks like you have your work cut out for you Steve. 🙂
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Regulars
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Went down to the beach after work and picked up my own MOP and Pen shell pieces. Cut them on a dremel with a cut off disc using my Foredom variable speed foot control. Glued them in place and then grouted them using a gray grout that I blackened with powdered stain.
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