billkilpatrick - 10-24-2009 at 07:22 PM
what do luthiers use to make lines; circles on the sound board - colored ink?
Dr. Oud - 10-24-2009 at 10:26 PM
I haven't seen ink used, You can cut a thin groove with a knife and inlay a sliver of wood...
fernandraynaud - 10-24-2009 at 11:31 PM
I think ink w'oud bleed so bad you'd have to kiss that soundboard g'bye. I've seen it done the way Richard describes, though it LOOKS like it was done
with ink.
billkilpatrick - 10-25-2009 at 09:08 AM
etched with burnishing iron, maybe?
hadn't thought about the color bleeding ... thanks.
jdowning - 10-25-2009 at 10:46 AM
I use the method suggested by Richard. Narrow grooves are cut using a single bevelled knife (so that the sides of the groove are vertical) the knife
guided against a thin metal template (straight or curved according to design). The waste wood between the knife cuts is then picked out using a thin
blade ground to a hook shape. Veneer lines are then glued into the grooves and levelled off using a scraper blade. In other words the same procedure
as for installing purfling.
Another method used by early luthiers was to engrave the lines and pattern into the wood and fill the grooves with black mastic, finishing everything
level with a scraper - at least I think that was how it was done. The disadvantage seems to be that over time the mastic loses adhesion and tends to
peel away. Some modern glues (flexible epoxy cement for example) dyed black might work for this application
The attached image shows this kind of inlay work on a guitar by Venetian luthier Matheo Sellas dated 1638 - together with purfling.
Using a burning iron produces charred grooves but is certainly a possibility as a decorative technique. I have used the technique on lute rosettes.
Jonathan - 10-27-2009 at 08:03 AM
Off topic slightly, but does anybody know where I can get some of those diamond/circle inlays such as shown in the above picks by jdowning? I have an
oud that has these (in abalam, I believe), and I would like to try using something like this in my next oud. The idea of cutting them myself just is
not appealing.
At all.
billkilpatrick - 10-27-2009 at 09:31 AM
even further slightly off topic ... i'd like to winkle those inlays out of the sound board and put in something plainer - wood veneer, perhaps ... as
well as those cheap plastic strips embedded in the bowl.
- how deep are they placed into the wood?
- will i weaken the structure of the instrument if i do this?
- how can they best be removed?
... filigree, extraneous doo-dads, decorative baubles and trinkets, etc., etc. drive me nuts - plastic in particular.
jdowning - 10-27-2009 at 12:45 PM
The inlay thickness would be around half the depth of the sound board wood- say about 1mm or less.
Yes, the inlay (or purfling) does weaken the structure but with (supposedly) beneficial results acoustically if correctly applied. Makes no difference
if the inlay is in there or not as it does not contribute to the structural strength.
On the other hand, the inlay can be cut to the full depth of a sound board (like the edge banding on modern ouds). However, on lutes and early ouds
the banding was cut to half depth of the sound board.
Plastic inlays ?!!