Violin Forum/Message Board

[Lambert]

Hi everyone! I have a fiddle where the tops lower bout has cracked off about an inch from the lower left eye of the f hole. Judging from the wear and poor fit to the rest of the top, i think it has spent a long time rattling around loose the case. How does one typically repair a crack when the breaks are no longer clean enough to just reglue it?

[jacobyfineviolins]

I generally remove wood rather than add it on a nice fiddle, if original varnish can be got to by shaving a tenth or two off the chewed faces.
You may have to shorten a rib or two afterward, so question is really how worthwhile the fiddle is.
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[R Mac]

Lambert,

How much of the poor fit is a result of wood being lost, and how much is about wood being damaged by compression and bending of splinters?

It may be the case that things look better after steaming the break a bit and then letting it dry.

I hope that those of you with more experience will correct my if what I am suggesting is madness.

Mac

[Lambert]

thanks for your replies... I think taking away minimal shavings might work well. Its not a great fiddle though- just your standard turn of the century german. So what is your alternative for such an instrument?

Im curious about steaming- i have done this on furniture projects, but im not sure how i would go about doing it when working with such small delicate pieces. Its not as easy as an iron and a damp rag right ?

[Michael Darnton]

I used to have a cheap espresso maker in my shop for steam cleaning cracks, via the frothing nozzle. It doesn't seem like that would be a bad first idea. If that doesn't work you can always try something else.

Me, I'd steam it clean and swell up what's crushed,, and then I'd find a way to make it fit together.
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[Mat Roop]

Never used steam for cleaning... I have used hot running tap water on a particularly dirty violin, but that left a white discoloration or "halo" in the area. Similar to a halo on wood furniture left by a wet water glass. The discoloration is water vapour trapped under the finish.
I was able to get rid of the halo with a very careful and judicious application of a dilute alcohol wash... worked out OK, but I'll never do that again!

Would steam not cause a similar effect?

What about using De Glue Goo?... any harm in that?
http://de-gluegoo.com/
...it is a solution of starch and acetic acid that has worked very well for me removing residue of white or yellow glue.
Cheers, Mat

[Michael Darnton]

I haven't had that problem with steaming, but I guess it depends on the varnish.

That wouldn't hurt, probably, but I'm thinking also of puffing up the insulted wood, and steam will do that. For cleaning cracks, I always use hot distilled water.
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[Joseph Leahy]

I had a suggestion from someone (not sure who now or on which forum) to dampen a Q tip and place it over the area that you want to steam; then place a hot soldering iron on the off side.

As soon as the iron touches the Q tip, the water on the Q tip turns to steam. In my application, I was using this to swell out a dent that was in the instrument. There was no varnish left on the dented/scraped area in my example. The method worked very well to swell the dent and allowed me to only affect the precise area I wanted to work on.

This method might allow you to work on the crack with minimal affect to the surrounding area.

Joe