Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Identifying Wood: Accurate Results With Simple Tools by R. Bruce Hoadley Review: Identifying Wood: Accurate Results With Simple Tools by R. Bruce Hoadley Reviewed by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Identifying Wood: Accurate Results With Simple Tools R. Bruce Hoadley Taunton Press, 1991. 224 pp. ISBN 0-942391-04-7 Can’t tell the difference between... uh... spruce and Shineola? Hope that batch of Picea excelsa you paid a small fortune for really isn’t Pinus attenuata or something similar? In times past, wood identification has been the weak spot in most luthier’s knowledge simply because the ID methods available have not been user-friendly. Dr. Hoadley has made a valiant effort to remedy this problem and I think has succeeded very well in his hybrid approach to wood identification. Of the old methods, one approach involves trying to match an unknown wood with a photograph or a veneer sample. The futility of this approach is obvious unless you are a rank amateur trying to determine whether a sample is walnut or zebrawood. The other method, usually presented in texts for professionals, involves a thorough understanding of wood structure, formation, chemistry, and so on. The ID process is accomplished by the use of dichotomous keys — this type of key presenting a series of choices, each choice involving only two possibilities. While this method can be highly accurate if you know your wood stuff, making a wrong choice or misinterpretation anywhere during the keying process can throw you wildly off the track. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Reviewed by Ernest Nussbaum Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Violin Society of America 48 Academy St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 Vol. VII No. 3. (All the articles in this issue were originally presented as papers at the VSA’s Tenth Annual Convention in November 1982, and include discussion based on questions from the audience.) Peggy Shipman: “Retouching: Methods and Materials.” Ms. Shipman’s paper mentions the use of water color; choosing the right wood for repairs and possible heat treatment for same, types of stains, color theory, the use of oil vs. alcohol varnish, pigments and coloring materials, and brush types. Herbert A. Wilson: “Space Age Technology for the Violin World.” Mr. Wilson manufactures an abrasive called “Micro-Mesh” which can be used for producing an ultra-fine finish on many surfaces including those of musical instruments. (The material is also sold on a foam backing under the name “Polysand.”) The paper deals with where, when, and how to use this material, how it acts on a surface, and how its action differs from that of other abrasives/polishing agents. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows by Thomas E. Florence Review: Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows by Thomas E. Florence Reviewed by George J. Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows Thomas E. Florence M & M Distributing Company 2465 South Industrial Highway, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 $175, and $30 for yearly supplements The author’s death has put the continuation of this book in doubt (1999). If there is one book that will be useful to any violin shop or maker who does appraising, this is it! Thomas Florence has compiled a complete sectional directory of authentic violins, violin bows, violas, viola bows, cellos, and cello bows that have been sold in the major auction houses in the United States and England since 1980. Each section is in alphabetical order according to the maker for easy reference. Every entry informs the reader of the catalog lot number, type of instrument, maker’s name, year the instrument was made, selling price (in U.S. dollars), date of sale, and what auction house sold the instrument. The manual can also be used as a price guide for collectors. Yearly supplements will include information concerning that year’s past winter, spring, summer, and fall sales, keeping the manual current at all times. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Early History of the Viol by Ian Woodfield Review: The Early History of the Viol by Ian Woodfield Reviewed by Christopher Allworth Originally published in American Lutherie #5, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Early History of the Viol Ian Woodfield Cambridge University Press, 1984 Out of print (1999) This is for the instrument maker or prospective instrument maker with an historical bent who wants to be inspired into making viols. While this book will not tell him or her how to make a viol (see Bottenberg, Building a Treble Viola da Gamba, 1980, Concordia University) it will provide the historical information necessary for an understanding of the instrument’s evolution up to 1700. Thus, it will encourage the discerning maker especially. This book is a very significant one, for not only is it the first major volume on viols in twenty years, it is the first book to address the “new wave” of viol making; when, with Ian Harwood’s article “An Introduction to Renaissance Viols,” Early Music, October 1974, and the articles contributed by Pringle, Harwood/Edmunds, and Hadaway in Early Music’s second viol issue, October 1978, we became aware of the many faces of the viol as distinct from the rather all-purpose one to which we had become accustomed. In other words, the wave of fresh insights into the harpsichord field initiated by Frank Hubbard in his Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making, 1965, is now being repeated here in the field of viols and therefore Woodfield’s contribution is an exceedingly important and useful one. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Manuscript on Violinmaking by Giovanni Antonio Review: The Manuscript on Violinmaking by Giovanni Antonio Marchi Reviewed by Don Overstreet Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Manuscript on Violinmaking Giovanni Antonio Marchi Arnaldo Forni Editore Bolgna 1786. 1986 Those of us who make instruments, particularly violins, are always hoping that ancient road maps will surface which will guide us along the mysterious paths that lead to the skill to build consistently good sounding and beautiful instruments. Over the centuries there has developed a considerable body of practical and historical information as well as enough “learned lore” to keep even the most hard-boiled luthier confused throughout his or her entire career. There will never be a substitute for excellent training, and all those who have made a serious study of instrument making have a firm foundation. Yet we cling to the belief that there are secrets, known only to a privileged few. Thus it was that in the winter of 1986 there was published in Bologna, Italy (for the first time), a translation of a two-century old manuscript on violin making by an Italian violin maker named Giovanni Marchi. Not a familiar name, but there he was in 1786 making instruments, repairing “old” ones, and actually having the wherewithal to commit his thoughts on the subject to paper. Could this work conceal information about 18th-century Italian violinmaking that had been lost? Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
