This selection of photographs show different stages of completing a through patch on a violin.
The instrument had previously been repaired and the material in the hole was a series of mushy fibres lacking in structure and was plain ugly.
Firstly I made a plaster cast to use as a structural bed for working with the front of the violin. It holds the shape of the front allowing you to take shavings of wood from the inside and and clamping required.
I then cleaned the area to reveal the true extent of the damage and the hole to be repaired.
The area on the topside of the hole has a thin paper glued to it allowing the hole to be cut to a regular oval and finished with scrapers to a fine feathered edge with the very last layer being a small amount of varnish.
Shavings are taken from the inside of the front as close to the area as possible in line with the hole. This allows you to have wood of the same yearly growth moved directly down so when viewed from the outside the grain lines are all continuous in thickness, spacing and the wood refracts in the same way.
Once the shavings have been glued in this needs to be scraped back carefully. It’s incredibly thin! A thin 1 mm veneer is prepared and glued in to re-enforce the area. This veneer is then scraped slightly to a fine continuous curved bed to allow for the final patch to be chalk fitted and glued into place.
Once the glue is dry the front is removed from the cast and the patch on the outside is gently scraped level. The final stage is retouching the varnish hopefully disguising the hole ever having been there.
Edward Gaut Violins 