@ballardviolins · Gareth Ballard
Saved 2026-05-15 · Posted 2025-11-27 · Status: New
Violinmakers normally use a dial caliper to measure the thickness of the plate as they remove wood, in order to reach the desired flexibility. I prefer to use light because density, and therefore transparency, is much more proportional to flexibility than it is to thickness. Also, Wood is not a homogenous product, and the light allows you to see how the density varies. When you have achieved an even transparency, you get a very even flexibility.
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Comments (15)
Incredible how craftsmanship and a little bit of technology use can work so well together
Thickness. The density is mostly uniform. Still an amazing technique.
TechnologiA!
How does this affect surface finish? I imagine there are some surprises when the lights come back on?
Optical transparency is a good guide to profiling the plate, I do same with archtop mandolins but the big assumption is that transparency is uniform across the board for a given thickness. Its still a good guide but I wouldnt slavishly scrape out the black spots without checking with the dial caliper! Optical transparency and density may not always be correlated as pointed out elsewhere. Annoyingly cedar, a tonewood I use quite a lot, is almost opaque at any thickness...
Uau!! Que ideia fantástica!! Faz tempo que existe esse método?
Now that’s attention to detail, damn!
WOw! The Master level 🔥
Not me thinking that was a red hot violin shaped hunk of steel 😂
It seems your goal is putting everything to the sam thickness with this method,same light ,same thickness. Is that right?
This is fascinating, thank you
Absolutely genius! Are those lights a special kind or a regular one?
Great !! What type of lightsource do you use ?
I wonder about symmetry here …
Techinologia! How do the finished violins sound, as compared to traditional methods?