Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling.

Andriy Hikavyy

General remarks

If we look at the definition of purfling, the Webster’s dictionary, for example, is rather short stating the following ”Ornamentation on the border of a thing; specifically, the inlaid border of a musical instrument, as a violin.” Let’s have a look why is it needed in the case of violin. In “The Art of Violin Making” of Chris Johnson and Roy Courtnall we find that it provides a shock absorber in the event of an accidental knock, helping to prevent damage to the edges spreading into the instrument and adds rigidity to the plates. Interesting enough, in the first place they put more esthetic function of purfling which make violin to look finished. Pretty much the same is mentioned in the book of Herron-Allen “Violin Making as it was and is”.

In the case of viola da gamba both purfling and inlay are also practically always present. When we look at how gamba is constructed we might wonder if purfling really has any structural value at all. Indeed, if we compare a violin with a gamba we see that the overhang which is prompt to be weak, is practically absent in the case of gamba (except of the very small area at the bottom of the instrument) making purfling rather unnecessary and purely ornamental feature.

Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Rather similar opinion is found in “A Disseration on the Construction of the Treble Viol da Gamba” by Fred. E. LaBarre.

Of course if we speak about instruments ornamentation tastes differ and the scale ranges from rather sober and simple to extremely lavish designs. It should be mentioned that one also should bare in mind that in certain periods in history a high degree of ornamentation was quite expected by the customers.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Purfling and inlay materials

Historically, the materials used for inlay have varied widely: whalebone and ivory, as well as ebony, boxwood and almost any other hardwood have all been employed. It has to be mentioned that apparently all wood purfling is not easy to bend. To facilitate bending a black fiber is used instead of wood. This apparently has its own shortcomings: fiber does not cut clean like wood, and tends to mush out, unless care is taken, using very sharp tools. It is more difficult to obtain a well defined miter joint and a sharp "bee-sting." Also there is a tendency for the fiber to mush out when being forced into the purfling groove, and when trimming the glued purfling flush with the plate. (MAKE YOUR OWN PREFORMED PURFLING by Albert W. Fische).

It is rather natural that there are quite a few ways to make your own purfling and for the sake of completeness they are referred in the literature list.

In the case of viola da gamba purfling is done when the sound box is glued together with top and bottom in place and trimmed flat with the sides.

Purfling execution

The technique of putting purfling on the back or top of viola da gamba is rather similar to the one done on a violin (with the difference that in the case of a violin purfling is done when the top or back are still not finished). It can be described in a few steps:

1. Marking the purfling channel with a purfling cutter.2. Making a channel with violin knives.3. Excavating wood from the purfling channel.4. Preparing stripes of purfling for inlay / bending and cutting to the size and angle /.5. Inserting the purfling and gluing.6. Cutting (scraping) purfling flash with the plates.

Further every step will be described in more details with some extra comments dealing either with tools or techniques.

Marking the purfling channel with a purfling cutter. In this step we only trace the purfling channel. This is usually done with a purfling cutter which usually looks like shown below. These tools range from very simple made of wood to rather complex ones made of metal.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Before using a purfling cutter it is strongly advised first to make sure that cutter’s blades are sharp and that distance between them corresponds to the chosen purfling thickness. Trying on scrap wood will pay off tremendously.

One should remember that cutting along the grain is rather difficult because the cutter tends to deviate. In this case very light movements of the cutter with sharp knives will help.

It must be mentioned that technological advances can be used here as well and modern rotary tools like Dremel or similar can be successfully used. In this case the whole channel is made at once though corners and bee sting places should be possible worked out with a knife.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Making a channel with violin knives. After the channel is marked, the sides of the channel should be deepened with violin knives (with a bevel only on one side). This should be done in a few paces and with rather light hand. After the channel is well defined pressure on the knife can be increased. Some care should be taken in order not to widen the channel making sure that the breadth is equal to the chosen purfling thickness and even everywhere.

Excavating wood from the purfling channel. Excavation of wood from the channel is done by a special purfling chisel and is rather straightforward.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Preparing stripes of purfling for inlay / bending and cutting to the size and angle /. Purfling stripes should be first cut oversize. Bending is done in a similar way as bending sides on a hot iron. If it does not fit it can be slightly scraped with a scrapers to the necessary thickness. Fitting purfling at the corners needs practice. In the case of viola da gamba stripes usually meet at the angle of 900. In order to do a good fit one might try to mark the angle on the wood with a pencil to guide the eye. The purfling can be cut under an angle with a chisel. The chisel’s back side should be mirror polished. In this way one can see quite precisely the angles the chisel is at. An extra tip would be to decrease the height of the purfling in this place almost to the final in order to see if the final fit is good.

Inserting the purfling and gluing. First glue is brushed in the channel and prepared purfling strip is gently put in place. It can be hammered in carefully. One has to avoid smashing the purfling. The work should be rather fast but preferably neat. This will make cleaning up easier.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Cutting purfling flash with the plates is practically the final operation. First purfling can be cut carefully nearly flash with a chisel and final leveling should be done with a properly set up scraper.

Inlay execution

In the next pages a way to put an inlay typical for Henry Jaye will be shown. It must be said that this approach should be rather universal and takes a lot after marquetry. This means that first a pattern should be put on paper, transferred on wood, channels cut, purfling (in this case) cut to the size and fit, glued, leveled off by scrapping.

It should be stressed that there are lots of instructions around which go like this “Draw a pattern on wood, cut with a knife

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

channels, insert purfling, etc.” From the perspective of a person who actually tried, it this is extremely misleading. First of all it is very difficult to draw complex geometrical figures directly on wood with the necessary precision. It could be possibly acceptable if the mark you leave on wood has thickness of purfling. But even then, if there is even a slight deviation between lines, which are supposed to be parallel, it is not quite visible on the wood when one just makes the pattern with a pencil, but becomes extremely visible after the inlay is done. Another problem is that if one will try to cut the channel with an ordinary violin knife things become extremely messy because it is very difficult to cut two parallel lines in two passes of a knife.

Here is, to my personal meaning, the easiest way.

First, make your design on paper. I think any paper will do, but eventually it should not be too dense. It can be done manually but it is preferable to do it in a graphical processor (Corel Draw for example). This will allow to make the pattern extremely precise. A simple trick is to draw one thick line for a channel where purfling should go. The line’s thickness should correspond to the purfling thickness and the final drawing should look like this. Using a graphical process gives a few extra features. The same pattern can be simply made wider, longer, lines can be adapted for different purfling, meaning that the same pattern can be applied for instruments of different sizes.

After the pattern is made and available on paper (printed out) it is glued to the wood where it is supposed to be with a thin hide glue. Hide glue is used because it is easy to

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

remove afterwards and also it will strengthen wood, though it is not that critical on hard woods.

Next step is probably the most important, at least for this kind of designs. Make a knife with two blades, just like in the case of purfling cutter. In my case it looks like in the pictures below.

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

Blades are set up to the purfling thickness and allow one to cut parallel lines.

Next, just like in the case with a purfling cutter, one has to scribe gently lines following the design on the paper, basically cutting through paper. After that, using a usual knife channels are cut and channel is excavated.

When the channels are ready purfling is fitted in. Note extra lines in places where two stripes of purfling meet. They are done in order to facilitate a better view of the necessary angles purfling should be cut at. Further, pieces of purfling are glued in. It is best to work in stages. Meaning that one side is started, two three purfling stripes are prepared and glued in. When everything is put in place and dried, excess of purfling and paper are scraped off and final result should look like shown below.

Literature

Johnson and Roy Courtnall “ The Art of Violin Making”

Herron-Allen “Violin Making as it was and is”

Fred. E. LaBarre “A Disseration on the Construction of the Treble Viol da Gamba”

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Viola da Gamba. Inlay and purfling Andriy Hikavyy

The Strad Magazine / Trade Secrets: September 2007 / Kai-Thomas Roth / HOW TO MAKE PURFLING 

http://www.scavm.com/Purfling.htm MAKE YOUR OWN PREFORMED PURFLING by Albert W. Fischer

Some pictures were taken from Brian Lisus web page http://thequartetofpeace.blogspot.com/2010/01/inlay-or-purfling-as-it-is-known-is.html

www.google.com

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