Violin, personal "Del Gesù" (a new attempt at this model)

I made another violin on my "personal Guarnerius" pattern.
This mould gives a 353-354 mm length of back, measuring along the arching (flexible tape).

This latest instrument has an oil varnish finish with no antiquing, over a "mineral ground" coat, obtained by mixing some finely crushed volcanic matter (pumice, pozzolana) into a basic oil varnish.

The pictures were taken before doing the final smoothing and polishing; I did this with tripoli and oil on a cotton rag, then with some diluted "Super Nikco" commercial polish  (I find that Super Nikco is too aggressive, even for a new instrument, but it is very efficient in leaving an oil-free surface).

The scroll pattern is derived from an instrument by Del Gesù that was in Ruggiero Ricci's collection. I remember that it was an instrument from the maker's early period, and it does not have the characteristic bulbous shape. The inner turns of the scroll follow the Rocca model, a rationalised and recognizable interpretation from one of the most important Italian makers and copyists, that I am trying to grasp and internalize.

Here are some details of the unpolished varnish coat and corners, etc...

I will return to the Rocca 1854 pattern for my next instrument, and I will see if I can incorporate my new findings into a better rendition of this beautiful model.

Spiral bushings

I installed spiral bushings on an old Sicilian violin. The D peg has also been regularly bushed and reopened beforehand, in order to drill the new hole in line with the other three.

I made a special gouge to ease the trimming of the bushings, by cutting and grinding an edge to an old file. The back of this gouge has a slightly curved surface, much like a so-called "in-cannel" gouge.

 I did a very light reaming of each hole before glueing two maple shavings on each hole. After the needed thickness was reached, I glue-sized and scraped the shavings flush with the pegbox walls. Then I did the varnish retouching and a very light French polishing. The retouch adds a slight halo around the peg holes, which simulates the dirt accumulation and helps to hide the repair. In the pictures (taken with my phone) the varnish retouch looks more opaque than it really is.
Finally, the old pegs have been thinned down on the peg shaper and reinstalled.