World class service in a boutique setting.

Today’s overly artsy pic: I joked with a friend

Today’s overly artsy pic: I joked with a friend on the west coast yesterday that it seems like I don’t get to cut bridges anymore unless I do a neck reset first. (an on going trend in the pandemic) Bring on the bridge! #wheremybridgesat #jhlviolins #neckreset #violin #luthiery #violinrepair

Bench monkey’s eye view of fill varnish. . Shell

Bench monkey’s eye view of fill varnish.
.
Shellac, sandarac, copal, and aluminum hydroxide for those interested. Oh, and a pinch of matting agent for this instrument. #jhlviolins #violin #luthiery #varnish #crack #fillvarnish #violinrepair #benchmonkey

Makers signature and date previously unknown to th

Makers signature and date previously unknown to the owner and myself was a pleasant surprise after pulling the neck.... I really wish I could write this well.
.
#violin #allentownpa #1918 #madeinpa #handwriting #lehighvalley

This flew by in my stories about two weeks ago, an

Today’s overly up close workshop shot: dressing

Today’s overly up close workshop shot: dressing down an added shaving to the bottom of a rib using a chalked piece of glass to find the high spots..
.
No, I’m not worried about sweat. It’s against the block, and it’s not glued on with hide #jhlviolins #ribs #violin #violinrepair #luthiery

@omopodcast is back tonight at midnight! We’re

@omopodcast is back tonight at midnight! We’re kicking off season 3 with @rahmaanphillip as our guest. #luthier #violin #vietnam #escapefromeverydaylife

Random workshop scenes from the week... . 1)I won

Random workshop scenes from the week...
.
1)I won a battle. Me vs a neck glued in with white glue. It’s imperative I save the the block on this one, or else it would have been gone. I ended up getting steam in the top of the mortise till I could push a stout opening knife in, and kept on pushing.
.
2)3D printed tower clamps. Nothing new here, 10 years ago I was exposed to Oded Kishony making something similar out of wood. These were printed in PLA at 60% infill. PLA despite being not the strongest of plastics to print with is plenty strong enough for this application. It’s also soluble with acetone, meaning that it loves CA glue. The wood blocks were first sealed with hide glue before gluing to the plastic with CA. 3D printing these is nice, they way in at about 9gr each. No, I’m not selling these. If you’ve got a printer, modeling these is super easy, it literally took 5 minutes in Fusion360... another 5 in the slicer, and around $4 of hardware (if you use aluminum threaded rods and nuts).
.
3) I reconnected with a favorite client from a while back, and he brought me this awesome gift! Thanks Paul! It was great seeing you and your Apparut the other day!
.
4)I keep sending this picture out to people who keep asking me for retouch advice. This week was no exception...Despite what might appear in a lot of my posts, 95% of everything I do is with these three colors and one brush. #jhlviolins #glue #violin #pochette #retouching #workshop #3dprinting

I’ve been fortunate to be entrusted with some gr

I’ve been fortunate to be entrusted with some great instruments over the years. As much as I greatly appreciate them, It’s hard relating to someone who lived centuries ago on the other side of an ocean who’s life experience is very different than mine... and this walks in tonight, and I can 100% relate to it...Heck, I married a girl from Scranton (more or less.) I’m well versed in understanding phrases like “heyna gum get me tooo tree pierogies, gyeeet yet?”
.
Scranton isn’t necessarily the folksy place The Office makes it out to be. It’s culturally diverse, seeing immigration in waves from Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Poland, Italy, and places in Central Europe too numerous to mention. It’s also a wee bit shady. @calynn123 ‘s grandfather one Christmas Eve started telling me the work he used to do for his uncle, a bank president and asphalt plant owner: “I used to take checks to this Senator, and that congressman, and to the members of city council.” I interjected and asked “So, you delivered bribes?” “Not bribes, just checks.” He said.
.
So yeah, I can relate to this. Where’s my pierogis and haluski? #violin #madeinpennsylvania #scrantonpa #scranton #1903 #fiddle

The question about using cling film came up. Yes,

The question about using cling film came up. Yes, I retouch up on top to check the color. I got this trick from David Burgess years ago. It’s super useful in getting comfortable with what a coating or series of coatings. There’s little fear in screwing up when you experiment. I’ve literally spent days painting on top of plastic. To be fair, it’s not the same as painting on top of wood. However, when you are unsure of where to start, or what to add, it’s great. #jhlviolins #varnishretouching #varnish

It’s Monday (is it Monday???) I’m getting read

It’s Monday (is it Monday???) I’m getting ready to ship this thing. There are 12k photos on my phone... I tell every repairer/restorer I know going into business for themselves to take photos of absolutely everything. Not only does it help getting other jobs, but it keeps your sanity in check. 3 AM is a hell of a time to think about what your working on, but it happens. Having the ability to judge dispassionately how you are doing from a photo, away from your work, is golden. Particularly when you are adjusting the color of wood and retouching. That’s what these photos are for, for me. If you get something out of this, great!
.
The heel pieces where adjusted with sodium nitrite. (Don’t be like me and use a bigger piece on the bottom, it’s a lot easier 🙄). Followed by a greenish tea stain and then instant coffee. The lines and wood replacement were further concealed with water colors and an inktense pencil. Top coat was a series of yellows to get a weak orange. Often oranges are a combination of many layers of yellow.
.
Cling film is brilliant for experimenting. You can paint on it all day and figure things out.
.
Materials used: Sodium Nitrite 5% solution, alcohol tea tincture, Star Bucks Via instant coffee. W&N Naples yellow, Davy’s Grey, Burnt Umber, Payne’s Grey. Derwent Inktense Madder Brown pencil. Color coat -
Lake of Reseda, French Ocre and @oldwood1700 Golden yellow alcohol color. #jhlviolins #neckreset #retouching #violinrepair #luthiery #violin

Today’s overly artsy workshop pic: tanning new w

Today’s overly artsy workshop pic: tanning new wood additions to a neck heel. #neckreset #tanning #uvlight #jhlviolins #violin #luthiery #workbench #whatsonyourbench

There are three basic kinds of grinds you can use

There are three basic kinds of grinds you can use to sharpen tools, flat grind, hollow grind and prison grind. This is an example of the third. It was done pretty haphazardly, every time I use it, I feel like I’m gonna go take somebody out. It’s a Japanese marking knife that has been ground into a thumbnail shape. I got the idea from for years ago from Oded Kishony. It’s super useful in picking out bumps... a quasi idiot chisel. #luthiery #violin #jhlviolins #violinrepair #violinrestoration #japaneseknife #neckreset

This is an unfinished thought, I’m throwing it o

This is an unfinished thought, I’m throwing it out into the wild in the hope that it might grow into something more. I purely did this as a proof of concept. It’s not for everyone, a quite probably and honestly overly complicated for the casual user.
.
I strongly dislike making spiral bushings. I’ve tried nearly every method known. Nothing suits me, so I decided to try to invent a better way for myself. This will work as a straight fiber/spiral bushing, but I think it would be a better method of incorporating carbon fiber, Kevlar, or phenolic into a bushing for an extremely strong and very conservative reinforcement.
.
The counter form was 3d printed in PLA, but it could just as easily have been drilled into wood (packing tape prevents sticking of glue.) Brown craft paper soaked with tightbond one was then wound around a 3mm dowel and compressed with the counter-forms. The compressed paper blanks were then glued into pockets in soft wood. This was to help fixture them for milling. Drilling the center allows for centering on the stock as well as a pilot for the drill/reamer. Drawing a bushing in @adskfusion360 is extremely easy, set the base diameter as a circle in sketch and extrude to an appropriate distance with a negative 1 degree taper (that’s what a 1 in 30 taper is). The compressed paper milled out very easily with a standard 2 flute end mill.
.
The end result is very strong, though still requires some back reaming. With careful planning, CF or Kevlar could easily be incorporated. I just did some quick and dirty retouching to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, thanks for sticking through reading this! #jhlviolins #digitalluthiery #rolandmdx50 #unimatsl1000 #3dprinting #violin #violinrepair #violinrestoration #bushing #paper #cnc

I was just thinking about this tonight...Small thi

I was just thinking about this tonight...Small thing that was part of a big thing from a few months ago. I don’t usually show these sorts of pics much anymore just because they all start to look the same. But, this is probably the least aggressive fix to post damage I’ve ever done. It held up just fine after a bunch of adjustments, and is still doing fine. Ring caused by dampit flood. Last photo included just for kicks. #jhlviolins #violin #digitalluthiery #rolandmdx50 #cnc #desktopmanufacturing #violinrestoration #soundpost #3dscanning

Sound on... so satisfying, and always slightly ter

Sound on... so satisfying, and always slightly terrifying. Steaming out divots. #jhlviolins #steam #violin #violinrepair #luthiery #violinrestoration

A lot of my colleagues are going to say “yes, of

A lot of my colleagues are going to say “yes, of course, I’ve been doing that for years.” But for those who haven’t seen this: Single edge razor blades are super useful in trimming fill varnish on convex or flat areas of an arch... safety though is always a concern, simple tape can limit the amount of the blade exposed and reduce much of the risk to the surrounding varnish. File under “stuff I stole from guitar luthiers.” (Frank Ford’s website) #fillvarnish #retouching #violinrestoration #luthier #luthiery #violin #jhlviolins #razorblades #violinrepair

Microscope, coffee... check and check. The will t

Microscope, coffee... check and check. The will to begin tricky retouch job? That might be lacking 🤣...
.
I always wondered what the view of the microscope looks like from the violin’s perspective. Looks a little like something from Wall-E. #jhlviolins #microscope #luthier #workbench #violin #violinrepair

I hope everyone is having as good of a holiday sea

I hope everyone is having as good of a holiday season as is possible this year.
.
A small PSA for string players: be careful buying and using products that have glitter in them. It’s literally everywhere... and unfortunately in some hand sanitizers. After using, it will often transfer to the instrument. Shown is a late 18th century English violin with glitter starting to work its way into the varnish. I have a feeling 2021 is going to be the year of being pissed at glitter. There is no great way of removing it aside from picking out each piece. It will often burrow into softer varnishes. I was reminded of this photo this past week by both greeting cards, and hand sanitizer... anyway, happy practicing and wash your hands! #glitter #violin #microplastics #luthiery #violinrepair #varnish

Who’s a cute little clamping caul?#jhlviolins #p

Who’s a cute little clamping caul?#jhlviolins #prusamini #digitalluthiery #3dprinting #cello #violinrepair

Doing final documentation before finally getting t

Follow on Instagram