For 20 years he played his violin not knowing how much better it could be - Re-repaired crack and...
Master violinmaker and restorer Olaf Grawert re-repairs, restores and optimises an over 200 year old German violin.
Master Violin Maker and Restorer Olaf Grawert started this channel to support string players and allow people into his working life.
Be fully informed when you buy your next instrument. Get Olaf's free 7 essentials when buying an instrument report here: olafgrawertviolinstudio.com/7...
00:00 Introduction
02:24 Day 1 - Opening the violin
08:36 Day 2 - Marking the cracks
10:00 Day 3 - Removing the neck and cleaning cracks
18:50 Day 4 - Gluing the large crack
19:48 Day 5 - Cleaning smaller crack
21:25 Day 6 - Gluing smaller crack
22:01 Day 7 - Removing reinforcements
26:10 Day 8 - Gluing new reinforcements
28:10 Day 9 - Cutting back reinforcements and fitting counter mould
32:08 Conclusion
#myviolinmaker, #olafgrawertviolin #violin
Website: www.olafgrawertviolinstudio.com
Social: / olafgrawertviolinstudio
/ olafgrawertviolinstudi...
Olaf, this is one of your very best repair vids. Your attitude of "no compromise" really shows off your professional skills at a very high level. This is craftsmanship at its finest. Thanks for this amazing vid. P.S.: Really enjoyed those closeup shots.
Olaf is a great LUTHIER.....he does all operations if theses are necessaries .
really great video. i love see how a professional repair a violin
Being proud of your own work and avoiding compromises because of lack of skill is way too common nowadays. It's great to see well done work!
this noise while opening the violin is so frightening and so satisfying at the same time
It's impressive the things we can find in KZhead. Here I am in a little country in Central America watching a professional repairing a violin.
Hi Olaf, Any chance you made a recording of the violin prior to the repairs? It would be great to hear before and after repairs
a violon in sad condition can give superb sound....i remember a true Gioffredo Cappa really in bad condition...bad repairs..cracks..bar glued ..etc etc...BUT A TRUE CAPPA...
4'03" lol when i open a violin... when table is removed my Hearth beat around 140 ... its allways a surprise
Have to remember how they work, the body just works as a resonating chamber so even with a few small cracks it will still sound good as they are mostly cosmetic. Though from the looks of it the wood is suffering a bit of dry rot from the Australian heat and dry air(potentially air conditioning too) It's always an issue, had a table and chairs that were around 150 years old that suffered from dry rot when we moved from Rhode Island to North Carolina where we had heat and a central A/C unit which caused the wood to dry out. We only saved two chairs but the table was much thicker so didn't suffer unlike the chairs which cracked and broke at the joints (no nails or screws involved)
Thank you for your appraising the situation acccurately and remaining uncompromising while returning the German violin to service in better condition than you found it. High praise for your knowledgeable efforts!
Fascinating! I’ve played guitar for 50 years and done my own hobbiest level luthier work for over 20 years. Also follow a few luthiers on YT, but today is the first day I’ve watched a violin repair. You, my friend, are simply amazing. Really well done and I love your narrative too.
I as well! Respect!
this has to be one of the most interesting channels one youtube
as someone who used to play as a child but never understood the complexity of the instrument. This is absolutely fascinating.
Repair work is the hardest of all trade skills. It takes considerably more experience to rework a piece than make it from sctatch. I'm just about to begin the re-cut of a large diamond and I'm chilling out and getting myself into the right head-space watching you go about your business. Love it.
Ты не прав. Для создания скрипки нужен большой талант. Обученный ремесленник может сделать коробку похожую на скрипку, но звук будет грубым. Мастер по ремонту скрипок, безусловно обладает талантом, но он идет проложенным Мастером путём. Спасибо
If a make something new, I can choose the materials, the design and the techniques I use. When I restore a piece, I have to understand everything the original maker knew. All makers use different techniques, therefore to be a competent restorer you need a much wider knowledge of the trade than making new items. If I manufacture a new product and I make a mistake, the prospective owner will never know there was problem. I will just replace the part or start over. You can not do this with a restoration. It is the very fact that the repairer has to 'follow the Master' that makes them a more versatile craftsman. @@user-dz8vy9hc7p
This was the first time I've gone through a violin opening. Thank you for showing the reactions of others as a warning. This was like stumbling into an active operating room by accident. Great video; you are an amazing surgeon.
I know nothing about violins and instruments in general but watching you remove the finger board gave me heart palpitations
Oh man, that dovetail on the nech was so awesome. Surprise, surprise!
That repair is quite impressive!! Now I truly understand that repairing violins is the work of art.
I don't know the first thing about violins. Wanted to fast-forward through this, but kept watching the entire video totally fascinated! Thank you so much!
After you shortened the shaft does the violin now have 'Demenshur?'
amazing video, you have no idea the wuality of the videos you make. I'm an aspiring violin student sitting across the globe watching a master luthier make and repair violins. what a time to be alive
Multitude of repairs and a thorough example of your skills. A master craftsman at work, very absorbing viewing. Thank you for demonstrating how the professional’s do it, and also shows why amateur’s should not get involved at this level. Looking forward to part 2.
Thanks Olaf for letting us sit at your bench. Enjoyed this very much.
Always amazing watching a true craftsman at work.
Not an interest in the world in violins. I have repaired and fabricated numerous products in my life and love to learn about everything possible. One never knows when a fabrication process or repair in one field might be applicable in another. Always enjoyable to see a master in their craft at work and still enjoying the work after many years. Nothing is more satisfying than working with your hands. Thank you for showing your work looking forward to seeing the completed restoration.
Olaf! This is the kind of video you need to do for your channel to take off like a torpedo. Really interesting stuff. This is a privileged insight into the profound knowledge of a great luthier. Great explanations, and great closeups as well. You created a magical window from which we can all see a wonderful and amazing world. You're closer and closer to finding your very own unique voice. Congratulations!! P.S. I was actually sad when the video finished!
A lot of cracks means much glue and patience! So much details as the fingerboard is long, and the neck inside looks outstanding for design! Hoping part two will make the violin sing! Also, your mentality for the little error is inspiring to do it again instead of compromise. ^_^ P.S. You sure go through a lot of shirts!
I was hoping to see more of the application of the hide glue to that re-opened crack But this is all fascinating, I love our viddies.
Love LOVE the step by step tutorials. Thanks Olaf!
Fascinating!
I Viola, my Violin is a 1928 Wurlitzer made in Germany, 13 1/4 inch string length I just love it for the longer scale length.
Brilliant!
This is fascinating!
I find violin repair very fascinating. I can see that you are quite skillful. Thanks for the nice video!
Great job!
Truly fascinating
Lovely work! Thank you for sharing
Great project so far!
looking forward to see further. thanx and happy holiday
Congrats!
hope you have/had a lovely holiday olaf and family!
I love watching your repairing videos. It’s so interesting and kinda therapeutic.
Thanks Olaf!
I love to watch Masters teach or Work. Beautiful.
I never knew how much work goes into one of these. I hate that it is delayed to finish but enjoy your holiday and see ya when you get back.
Love the close-ups while shaping :)
Fascinating
Fascinating.. but please when you are showing or referring to something could you make sure it’s on camera, and when you’re pointing out some detail of a crack or problem could you hold the shot as still as possible for a little longer?
I love watching theae repair videos.
Very informative video, shows how much skill and perseverance one needs to be a master violin maker/repairer. Looking forward to the next part. Thanks Olaf!
Thank you! For the best video. I ever watched.
Thanks!
your patience is amazing
In 2015 I got a cheap violin outfit. It’s been quite a journey! I love it and hate it at the same time.
That dovetail joint was really cool to see!
The anticipation to see the finish is killing me!🫨
What an amazing craftsmanship!! I really enjoy watching this.
Man you have such patience and care it’s truly magnificent to watch you work!! Two set sub here saw you and I’ve been hooked ever since!
Thank you!
Very interesting video, and looking at your expertise in action is very pleasant. Just a note - please close the peroxide bottle as soon as possible for safety reasons, especially if it's of stronger concentration. It's just good lab practice (and for a reason). By keeping the bottle opened for only the necessary amount of time you also prolong the lifetime of peroxide a bit. Cheers!
Olaf-I have been trying to play guitar for 60+years. Always something new to learn. I so admire the patience - the skill -your obvious enthusiasm ,for your work.Simply fascinating !
Fascinating. Thank you for making such a clear, detailed video.
A great video with wonderful tips, subscribed and looking forward to watching more of your videos. I'm primarily an historical bowmaker, but I do a lot of repairs as well, so I can empathize with your having to deal with bad repairs, and the inherent drama of taking off a top. My worst experience, but a very educational one, many years ago now. was with an English cello, ca 1720, which came to my shop with a buzz at certain tones. I was confident that it was the usual, an open joint or crack, and foolishly named a top price for the repair, 20,000 Austrian shillings at the time (about 1500 Euro nowadays). I ended up working a month to fix it, with my apprentice. Lesson learned. Checked for open cracks or joints. Nothing. All the usual suspects (string buzz on the fingerboard, bad slots in the nut, etc) were also eliminated. Inspection of the interior for a loose bass bar or cleats: nothing. I finally decided I had to take the top off. First with a knife, as you did. Couldn't get in anywhere. Then with hot water, then hot water and alcohol, then pure alcohol and heat applied. No dice. I finally had to more or less saw the top off with my thinnest Japanese saw. Turned out that the last to take off the top had glued it on with who knows what, something I couldn't dissolve. And I finally found the buzz: there was a section of the belly which had a large piece pierced through parallel to the surface with whatever knife he had wielded to get it off. Invisible from outside and inside. This was easy to repair, but I had to make a _Sargenkranz_ (coffin wreath) as we call it here, a doubling of the belly like that on the violin you did here. You know how much work that is. Live and learn I guess. I still count myself lucky that I can pursue my dream. I bet you do too. Cheers from sunny Vienna, and lunch is on me if you're ever in town, Scott
Love the craftsmanship! Hearing the little details that you have come across in your craft is amazing! Your explaining of the physics and thermal dynamics of the wood was very well done as well!
Wow! It's amazing how much knowledge, skill and care goes into such repair jobs, when done right! 👍😃
Wonderful! I enjoyed every second of it. I have no words explaining my feelings.
Great video, and a real lesson on the grain orientation of cleats and patches. Not just that, but the grain direction is a big one for me.
The algorithm must be working mightily because I just found this via suggestion, even though my interest is more in fretted instrument building and repair. Your work is amazing, as is your ability to explain stuff. Likewise your camera work and editing. Often I’m not a fan of chatty presentations, but you do “unhurried” so interestingly. I’m eagerly awaiting the remainder of this cliffhanger. - Paul
As Jerry Rosa says "opening string instruments is a destructive process, there are no zippers here to open" you are basically breaking it apart and the only thing that matters is the end result, awesome work 👌🏻
Really is fascinating to see how you repair wood in the instruments! (Onwards to Part 2!)
Very nice video! Looks like Olaf really knows his craft and doesn't take any shortcuts in repairing. I've worked on a few guitars and have learned a lot by just watching your video. I started playing the violin when I was young and much later switched to the guitar. Thanks for all the insight into your repair process.
Facinating
First time on this channel. Very rewarding to see a master work his trade. I see you have a Tormek in your shop. It would be great to get a video on sharpening your tools.
Very very good repair video. Greetings from Germany
By 2:20... Well apart from all this, there's not much wrong with this violin.... 😉 Love watching a craftsman, such as yourself, at work. Always learn SO much from your vids, Olaf. From now on, prising apart slices of frozen bread with my knife... trying to find a gap... will forever remind me of opening up a violin. Have a super holiday! 🥰
I was going to jokingly suggest using car mold ("Bondo" here) but I see you do use the stuff. Wow!
Just discovered your channel with this video. Awesome video. Subbed!
the 45 degree angles patches is something I've not seen before - those kind of little bits of knowledge is why I watch these kinds of videos! Thanks and cheers!
I am probably never going to play violin, but I enjoy your videos all the same.
🩷 Excellent !
The Algorithm suggested this video this morning. Very nice work you do. My son is a player so I sent him this video. Thanks for doing this.
Fascinating sir! From one ex musical instrument maker ( pipe organ) to another that is certainly a fiddly job ( no pun intended lol ). I'm looking forward to watching the next episode
This is so interesting, and the presentation style is easy to listen to. Subbed here.
Hi Olaf! Love your videos and seeing the art & skill that is required to make these beautiful instruments! I see lots of old instruments online that have had large grafts inserted into reamed peg-holes but I haven't seen them in person. Are these repairs common? Would love to learn about them if you can elaborate.
That sounds like a South African accent, ie: the same intonation. with a slight Ozzie twang. 😃If so, thanks! Another example of the many talented and dedicated people we have all over the world! 🙏
Ahhh, the cliffhanger!!!😀
Thank you Olaf , great video , very inspiring , get me to go back to work , :n)
Musical carpenter 🤗
Alan Rickman repairs a violin....
I never saw this.. but now that you say it.. his voice 😂😂😂 RIP A.R. great actor.
Hide glued joints will open like this. When I first started repairing guitars, they could be managed this way. But now most guitars are glued with aliphatic resin or polyvinylacetate emulsion glue. Those are best opened with controlled heat. At modest tempreature these glues become cheesy, but too hot they become sticky,
Greetings from Ohio, USA. Today this video came up in my recommendations. Ironically I have been going through a book series where one of the characters is a violin builder, so this piqued my interest. I really like your presentation style, and craftsmanship is timeless. Looking forward to more.
Wow. I have long wondered how instruments are opened like that. Very interesting!
The title of the clip lured me in. As a music lover, record collector, hifi buff I always want to dive deeper, extract more. "Half an hour, no way, I will watch a sequence here and there ..." I said, fooling myself. Now it's 28'34", still sitting on the edge of my chair leaning forward. And my food has gotten cold.
Hope you have a good holiday!
I have a copy of the strat that my pop had in the marching band at the beginning of ww2. I got it when he passed when I was in year 6. My mother got it rebuilt, like what you do with your violins, cost 7k and my God the sound it makes. Just beautiful. My teacher at the time would take it off me at the beginning of every lesson to just smash out the most maddest sounds you will ever hear. Man she could play.. she offered my mum 30k to by it and she said no.. iv looked it up and at today's prices, it's worth $100
Very interesting, thanks for the video. In the automotive industry before CAD/CAM we would employ modeling techniques like your 'hand apply'. Cool how crafts can be used across wide fields of work
2:33 you are so right!! I would not want to see my violin repaired, not that it needs to.
Great work Olaf, and nice video. Gives me sort “what of Adam Savage was an Ozzy violin maker” vibes! 😂
love it
We need KZhead shorts of olaf cracking violins open
As a bespoke woodworker my inclination would have been to reinforce all of those tiny cracks about the belly(?) of the instrument with long narrow slivers of Japanese rice paper applied to a thin narrow application of hide glue simply for the allowance of radial movement. Do luthiers ever do anything like that? Those reinforcements when shown when the top was removed seemed wrong both structurally, allowing the movement, but also sonically, restricting the vibration of the top plate. Is that technique common?
Yes, some makers have used rice paper as reinforcements. The techniques I use have worked well for hundreds of years... Amazingly the extra weight doesn't effect the tone much. Sometimes I even get feedback that the instrument sounds better afterwards
@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker I play an F-5 style mandolin and have an A-4 as well and became dissatisfied with the sound of the A-4 and suspected the huge amount of lacquer used to finish the instrument . I removed the lacquer from the top plate, lightly toothed it with a 1200 grit pad and finished it with a single thin wipe-on layer of an old fashioned soy bean oil varnish I can no longer get. The difference was night and day. It was like the top was finally allowed to resonate. The notion of using cross-grained reinforcements like that would have never occurred to me. That's good to know. Thanks
That coffee mug is my favorite Van Gogh painting. :)
Olaf...Can't wait for the follow-up here. Have a good vacation😁
How long does a repair take when you don't explain what you are doing? I love the work you are doing. I am learning so much.
Amazing work. How much does this type of repair cost?