So, I made a violin.

This was a really long process, starting around 2003. I don’t know quite why I decided to do this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I started by getting the book Violin Making, Step-by-step by Henry Strobel. I’d read that it was a good introduction to the overall process with reasonable and practical techniques. It was a good introduction, but of course I made mistakes along the way. Oh boy did I make mistakes.

Some of the lessons learned:

• Measure twenty times, cut once
• Keep your tools sharp
• Keep your tools sharper than you think you need
• Keep your tools really sharp
• Don’t work when you’re tired
• Don’t rush anything

How did it turn out? Actually pretty well overall. It has a lot of mistakes, but I got it done, which was the goal. If I had tried for perfection, I’d still be working on it.

In 2003 all I got done was the garland (ribs – sides) and some of the initial carving of the back plate. Then I took about 6 or 7 years off. In 2012 or so, I started looking at it again and threw away my initial attempt at the ribs, because I had so much asymmetry in my mold that it would really never work. But the back was already cut out asymmetrically. So I created a new mold based on the back I had, re-did the ribs, and cut out the front to match. I also started work on the neck.

I took another break for about a year, coming back to things in late 2013. My goal was to finish by the end of 2013, but that didn’t happen for various reasons. Finally, in late 2014 and early 2015, I really got serious about it, and decided that done was better than good. So I just hacked away at it until it was finished. Lots of little mistakes, and some really big ones… but it does generally look basically like a violin, and it sounds better than some violins I’ve played (although definitely not as nice as others).

Next project? I don’t know – maybe a 5-string viola.