CHAPTER XI.
GETTING PARTS TOGETHER THAT APPARENTLY DO NOT FIT—THE USE OF BENZINE OR TURPENTINE—TREATMENT OF WARPED OR TWISTED LOWER TABLES.
"We will now," says the chief, "have a look at that old Brescian violin that I bought last week, it is in that set of drawers by the bench there, the third from the top." The assistant gives a look in the direction that would strike a spectator as expressive of doubt whether a violin could be even squeezed by hard pressure into any of the drawers. Nevertheless he obeys, opens the drawer, and seeing only a brown paper parcel tied with thin string, takes it out and holding it up says, "do you mean this paper bag, sir?" "Yes, that is it." The paper bag is brought to the table at which the chief is sitting and who undoes the string and paper, letting loose a number of begrimed pieces of veneer-like wood, some of these fractured, the upper and lower tables comprising three parts, a head that some modern makers would think ugly enough to cause a nightmare, with its short heavy neck as left by the maker about three hundred years back. The condition of the whole concern was suggestive of its having been raked up from some out of the way dust heap that had, after the oblivion of a century, at last caught the eye of a modern sanitary inspector. There was only one sort of person to whom it would be at all inviting, that of our chief above mentioned. "Now that is what I call a bargain, James," he begins, when turning over the pieces one by one; "all perfect, not a part lost. I bought it of a dealer in the country who said he could not get the parts together, they would not fit, and he was glad to get rid of the lot with as little loss as possible." James at this moment has been placing the two tables of the violin together and remarks, "I don't think these belong, sir, the back is nearly a quarter of an inch shorter than the front and narrower too." "Never mind that," is the answer, "the style is the same, the purfling, the work and the varnish are the same, it was all together at one time and looked well enough, and it will have to go together again and possibly look much better, and you will have to do it under my instruction, as you proceed, it will repay for all the trouble and time spent upon it by its appearance and tone. The man who sold it to me said that its former owner told him he had a good try at getting it together and failed. This is the direction in which they have both made their mistake, they treated the unmechanical old Italian work as they would a modern copy of a Cremonese maker, and which had been built upon a machine cut block that served for ever so many warehouse fiddles; these old Italians had to use the hand bow saw, which was not adapted, unless great care was taken, for getting very true upright sides, hence the upper and lower tables are as often as not differing in size, sometimes the upper is largest, at others the lower. Occasionally the length may be the same with the width differing. Now you had better set to work and wash all that muck from the pieces, be careful not to separate any parts that may be fairly well fixed. I want you to do this cleaning in my manner, not that which you were accustomed to before coming here. I know the too frequently pursued method of putting the whole collection of parts in a tub of water and there letting them float about until the glue has dissolved and left the wood, but the following is preferable. Firstly, get some hot water sufficient for your requirements as you proceed, renewing it occasionally. Your piece of sponge you always have ready, and your cotton cloth as usual. I have cut down a hog hair brush of half-an-inch in width, you can use other sizes according to convenience. Being cut abruptly across, they can be used as small scrubbing brushes after dipping in the hot water. The advantage is that of your being enabled to leave untouched or even dry, certain parts which you are not desirous of interfering with. The occasional sopping up with the sponge and cloth will show the progress that is made. The dark, dirty glue of the modern fiddle tinker will gradually wash off, leaving frequently the ancient, light coloured stuff in quite a fresh state and sharply defined, further, it will sometimes give you a hint as to the exact position which the adjacent pieces held originally. There will not be any necessity for scrubbing very hard with the cut-down brushes; if this is done the surface of the wood will suffer; a little patience as one part after another is cleansed and the whole completely denuded of its covering of dirty glue and grime, and it will be perceptible that there is method in this, and consequently the most rapid real progress.
"Occasionally there will be found in and about old repairings or tinkerings lumps of pitch-like substances, hard or soft as the occasion has seemed to the workman to require, or possibly the only stuff obtainable, if not with the idea of a damp resisting material. These, as you know, will be treated in your usual manner, that is, removing with a blunt knife for a large piece and a piece of fine flannel wetted with some pure benzine, which having a strong affinity for any oily particles, absorbs them rapidly and leaves a clean surface. Spirit of turpentine will also answer the purpose, but is less rapid in its action and does not evaporate so completely, leaving a slight residuum of resin. Alcohol of any degree of strength must be kept quite away from the work, as even supposing it specially adapted as a solvent for removing the objectionable material that may be found clinging anywhere, it has such destructive action upon the old Italian varnishes that the slightest drop on the surface will cause irreparable injury. Keep it quite clear of your repairing work, it is not absolutely necessary under any circumstances, although it is very tempting to a slovenly repairer."
We will now suppose that the instructions have been duly carried out, the different parts have now resumed their original condition of cleanliness and have a wholesome aspect. One or two of the ribs left standing and even undisturbed since being placed in position by the maker about three centuries back, serve as a guide respecting the projection of the edging over the ribs. After carefully noting this, and damping round the inner edge, these are removed and placed aside. The chief and his assistant are now enabled to thoroughly examine the work of this product of a by-gone age. It is none the worse for being clean. The comments upon the tool-marks now visible after the dispersion of the grime are of a rather opposite character, the connoisseur noticing the manner of working over the surface by the old Italians as being different to that pursued now; the assistant sees nought but rough gougings and scratchings as with a notched or blunted tool, and concludes that the old makers were not as good workmen as the moderns. "Now, James," says the other, "you have been doing little else than repairing since you took up with this business, and have never had the opportunity of working a violin from the beginning, straight off the stocks, without being drawn away to some other work. Consequent upon this your work has not so much distinctive character, much effort at mere smoothness being apparent and in excess of good style. These old Italians were designing and making new violins day after day for their livelihood. Repairing, when they could make equally good, fresh instruments, was to them of secondary importance, and so we find restorations in the olden times were of a kind we should now call very indifferent, if not altogether bad."
The lower table or back of good sycamore is now turned about and well scrutinised by James, who now remarks, "this back is warped, I think that is why the last two owners could not make the other parts fit well, what is to be done with it, we are not likely to make a better job of it than they were with a back twisted like that?" The reply is, "that old Brescian maker was not likely to turn out a new violin with such a twisted spine! that condition has arisen since and is not a constitutional defect, it has been caused by damp and straining, and being repaired while in the strained condition, it retained the twist; we must alter that. Fortunately, the back is in one piece, so we shall not have the trouble about the joint, although with the necessary extra care the treatment would have to be much the same. Now, first of all, get a cotton cloth sufficiently large when folded once or twice to cover a surface such as the violin back presents. It must now be well soaked with water till it holds as much as possible without dripping. The violin table will now be placed with the varnished side downwards, the wetted cloth placed over it. Be sure that the surfaces of cloth and wood are in contact by gently dabbing it down all over. It can now be placed aside for about three or four hours in order that the moisture may soak into the wood for some depth. Meanwhile we may determine upon and get ready the means whereby the warping, as far as possible, if not wholly, may be got rid of. It must be borne in mind that the wood which was cut in its natural state from the tree and mostly with the grain, will be disposed, under the influence of damp, to return to the original form or condition in a more or less degree. Under good management, that is to say, with a sufficient amount of damp and no more, it almost seems to try to resume its old condition. This will be borne out by watching the effect of much wet upon any wood that has been previously bent into shape, or upon the separated ribs of a violin. The efforts of the wood to return to its original conformation will be apparent in the instance of the ribs, perhaps provoking, as the re-bending without injuring the varnish, which may happen to be of the most lustrous and delicate description, is often a matter of great difficulty, and at times an impossibility."
It was for the purpose of avoiding the risk of such defacement that the brushing away of the glue and grime by parts at a time was recommended, although the time consumed by taking the parts in detail may often be a drawback. If the ribs are quite saturated, as when left to float in water, they will be sure to come out nearly straight, and the varnish, if not of the kind that has been worked well into the wood, irrecoverably spoilt. Even when quite so, the trouble does not end here, for the wood having taken nearly its own form again, will have to be bent, with all its attendant troubles, into shape. Complete saturation of any part of the violin should therefore be avoided.
The "making" or arrangement of whatever may be needful for getting rid of the warp or twist of the back plate will now have to be decided upon. There is generally more than one way of getting over a mechanical difficulty, and in the present instance there may be many, but the one promising to be most successful and offering the least number of obstacles to success will have attention. The repairer takes in hand some of the softest wood obtainable, say American pine, or if any is easily obtainable, poplar; that kind known as "black poplar" is perhaps as free from hard thread as any, a couple or more of slabs about three or four inches wide and two or three longer than the upper and lower widths of the back, with about a quarter of an inch of thickness. An opening is bored in each, one in which the upper or smaller part will pass through, the other sufficiently large to admit the lower or larger half. The opening must of course be enough for admission of the rise or modelling and a little more. The object of this will soon be apparent. When the inner surface of the back plate has absorbed sufficient moisture from the wet cloth, this being so in the judgment of the operator, the wood will have lost very much of its resisting power to twisting by the hands. Advantage is taken of this condition, and each piece or collar of wood passed over the proper portion of the back like a loop. If fitting tolerably close, all the better; but it may require a soft wedge or two in parts to keep it from shifting after being placed in position. In some instances more than two or even three or four pieces may be of advantage where the tendency to twist is irregular. The operator now gets a short plank of ordinary wood, of even surface, straight, and true as possible in each direction; lifting the violin table with the loops of wood attached and placing it on the plank, some of the loops will be raised up on one side while others are depressed at the same. In the case of the simple warp, one of the two will vary in rise or a different angle to the plane. The process now is simple, and the loop rising at one side will be pressed down and held in position by either a weight or any contrivance handy. It should be done a little more than seems necessary for restoring the even line of the edging, which can be fairly well seen by looking along from end to end; this is to allow of a slight recoil when the loops or wooden cramps are removed.
For a more determined twist the extra depression of one part can be accomplished by inserting layers of wood under the opposing parts so as to get more distance for the remaining one.
Nothing is now required but the drying thoroughly. This will be according to temperature and moisture present in the atmosphere; no artificial means should be resorted to.
Not the slightest injury will accrue from the process described, provided due care is taken that there is no overstraining, and the damping is neither excessive nor insufficient. The result of the former is likely to be an inequality in the bending, the line or level of the edging when looked at along its course, will look uneven, as if some upheaval had taken place here and there. Courage and caution are faculties brought to bear strongly and continuously on the subject by every repairer with a reputation for success. Without the former, many attempts which might have ended successfully have proved to be failures and to require doing over again; and insufficiency of the latter is what is so strongly evident in a very large majority of so-called "restored" violins. The cases may have been considered by the repairers as requiring heroic treatment, overstraining, excision of an unnecessary amount of the old wood, making too much of a clean sweep of parts that may have afforded food and lodging for bore worms being too evident, besides the saving of time and trouble.