David Burgess

Rough-hollowing out this maple cello back (to the point where I'll use small planes) took 63 minutes.

Bet I can still do a top in under ten minutes though.

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I withdrew from the original thread about halfway through, because I thought it was inevitably headed for a bad outcome, even though some people (not neccessarily me) were trying hard to keep it on track. I still think Janito's original idea was good. Not much value in people repeating past mistakes, unless there is a new twist which can turn a mistake into a win.

Appreciated the humorous anecdotes too, like people catching their shirts on fire. Still, that's real stuff in our business, and worth mentioning.

The original list of warnings was:

1. Potassium silicate (waterglass) treatment of wood.

2. Ammonia fuming of wood.

3. 'Liquin' treatment of wood

4. The difficulties getting cold-dissolved turpentine-mastic varnish to dry properly.

5. Michelman rosinates and varnish disintegration

Anybody up for trying again?

I'll start it off:

I think it's really risky to use a varnish system which has not first been tested on violin wood sample strips. Better yet to include tool handles, to see the affects of wear, moisture and perspiration. Better yet, to include a junk violin or two. Better yet, to include some commerially available accelerated aging tests, but that can get really expensive really fast, so you do what you can.

Many moons ago, we were discussing alternatives to the conventional saddle.

Think something like this is too ugly and unconventional to fly? It just sits there, held on by tail adjuster tension.

"Ray Weishaar (September 9, 1890 - April 13, 1924) was a Class A Racing Champion in the 1910s and 1920s. He rode for the Harley Davidson 'Wrecking Crew,' and helped to popularize the nickname 'hog' in reference to Harley-Davidson by carrying the team's mascot, a small pig, around on victory laps."

Now in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Ray_Weishaar

So what's your excuse for your vices?