Hi Laurence,
I just finished cutting two roses, and I would pretty much agree with
with Richard says. I use carpenter's glue to adhere the pattern to
the underside of the soundboard (although I think next time I'll try
hide glue), and I thin the area of the rose to about 1 mm. You can
do that with a scraper or simply hold a random orbital sander (gently
and carefully) on the underside of the rose area to let it be thinned
down. Stop frequently to check thickness. I use a thickness sander
to thickness my soundboards, and I have a carrier for it that is
built up in the area of the rose. It automatically causes the rose
area to be sanded thinner. Since the wood of the rose has no
acoustic function, (other than the Helmholtz effect), you can thin it
down without affecting the sound of the instrument.
Like Richard I use a scalpel with a narrow triangular blade (a number
0434--I don't know if that is the same in the Netherlands). I find
the scalpel blades to be sharper than Xacto blades, and unlike
Richard I've never felt the need to regrind the back edge of the
blade. But he probably does better roses than me. Scalpels aren't
intended for cutting wood, so you should always, always, always wear
eye protection. The blades are harder steel than Xacto blades and
thus more brittle, and they can snap and fly off if you bend or twist
them while cutting. I wear an Optivisor, which is a flip-down
binocular magnifier, which I find helps my middle-aged eyes a lot and
provides protection. Since I glue the pattern permanently to the
underside (which I guess is Renaissance practice), I cut in a couple
of passes. The first slices through the paper and defines the line.
The second slice goes into the wood. Sometimes if it's a tricky
curve, I make several shallow passes.
Another trick is to keep a block of paraffin handy while you're
cutting. If you feel the blade dragging as you cut, slice the
scalpel gently into the paraffin to lubricate the blade. All you
need is a bit of residue on the cutting edge. Also, scalpel handles
are flat and much thinner than Xacto knife handles, and can give your
hand cramps while you're working. I cut a dowel in half lengthwise
and taped the halves to either side of the scalpel handle to give me
a heftier handle. Just wind the tape down around the handle to hold
the dowel halves in place. I also find that I do best if I take rose-
cutting in short sessions of about 20 minutes. It's pretty intense
concentration, and it helps to step away now and then to relax. It's
supposed to be fun, remember? If you push yourself to get it done
quickly, you're more likely to make a mistake.
After cutting the pattern from the back, I put a light coat of
Qualasole on the rose on the top side before cleaning up the pattern
from the top. That keep the wood from fuzzing and gives a cleaner
result. After the lute is assembled and before I varnish the back, I
also put a light coat of Qualasole on the rest of the soundboard
before waxing it. It keeps the wood from absorbing oils from your
hand while playing, and it evens the color of rose and soundboard.
I have not used David van Edwards's course, but I have heard many
excellent things about it. I'm sure he gives thorough instructions
on cutting the rose. You can also find good instructions in Robert
Lundberg's book, Historical Lute Construction, and there is an
excellent article by Ervin Somogyi in the Winter 2004 issue of
American Lutherie.
I have used European spruce, Adirondack red spruce, and Englemann
spruce for lute soundboards. Both the European spruce and the
Adirondack red spruce are somewhat harder than Englemann and a bit
more difficult to cut roses into. In the US, good-quality Englemann
spruce is far cheaper. Luthiers Mercantile (www.lmii.com) sells
Englemann lute soundboards for about 15 dollars American. At that
price, if you are planning to use a more expensive spruce for your
lute, I would buy an Englemann soundboard and practice. Or you could
just make your first lute with Englemann and save the more expensive
spruce for another time.
It also matters what rose pattern you use. The basic Star of David
pattern used in the Gerle lute is mostly straight lines, and would be
an easier pattern to try first. And remember that not every lute in
the 16th century was a masterpiece. If you look at the illustrations
in Lundberg's book, you can see that some of the roses on historical
lutes were pretty sloppy. So relax. If it isn't cut to machine-like
perfection, it's more historically correct ;-)
Tim Motz
On Mar 7, 2009, at 4:32 PM, Laurence Hall wrote:
Hello everyone,
I'm thinking of taking a shot at David van Edwards "build your own
Baroque lute" course, but, having made an EMS lute 25 years ago,
I made
a complete mess of the rose. I'd like to try to practice this a few
times before I go for the whole thing, but I'm having some
problems.
I've got a piece of Picea Abies to practice on, and I read that an
exacto knife is used for this purpose, after glueing a paper
drawing of
the rose to the prospective soundboard. Is this how most people
do it?
I find it extremely difficult to control (the exacto knife) and
I can't
help feeling I'm missing something.
I looked up some info about chip carving on the web, they use
larger
knives for much the same purpose, only on a much larger scale
than the
detail we're used to in a rose. Can anyone tell me what the best
tools
are for this work? And if it's not too impertinent of me, could you
give a rough sketch of how a professional does it?
Many thanks,
Laurence Hall,
Amsterdam
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