Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Molds are always coated with wax or more recently varnish. This is to prevent the glue sticking the staves to the mold. From what I saw in Naples there is no practise of papering the mold and then attaching the ribs. This makes sense to me. The process is to get the bowl off the mold then lather the inside of the bowl with hot glue. When this is dry another layer of hot glue is added and then the paper is stuck on to the inside of the bowl. The paper is then lathered with glue to make it really limp and pushed into the inside of the bowl by hand. The point is to get it to fit the bowl exactly. It is then left to dry.
The cool part of this system is that the glue shrinks as it dries. as does the paper. this pulls the the bowl together. It greatly strengthens the bowl. So it makes sense to use long fibre paper and most kraft papers are in this category. It also covers imperfections in bowl construction. This is important in a production environments.
I also saw bowls with carefully aligned pin holes. Well used ones at that. Whether by design or long usage by skilled luthiers I cant say but having made a few now I do tend to pin them in pretty much the same places each time.
Using shavings is basically the same as using paper. Im sure they are pressed into the rib joints with as much vigor as the paper. I prefer paper because it offers the decorative opportunity. But It’s not important to functionality.
Bookmarks