Michael Darnton is a Chicago-based violin maker, restorer, writer, and teacher.
About This Website
On any given day, you might find me working on a restoration or setup, adjusting an instrument for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra member, writing about my craft, documenting instrument information for the Darnton & Hersh Fine Violin archives, or chatting on the phone with a violin maker colleague across the country or across the globe. I enjoy all these parts of my work week and would like to share the violin making and restoration aspects of my work with you via this website.
Making a Viola
This step-by-step photo-essay is possibly the most extensive photo set of the violin making process on the web. Here you can see the entire process starting with the form all the way through the final assembly. I set up a camera and tripod in my shop and shot this series back in 2003.
Latest Posts
- Not a Help!
Gluing on a fingerboard is not a hard job. On the other hand there’s a school that believes in making easy jobs hard, in this case - Making Scrapers
Set up correctly, a scraper should be able to pull shavings just like a plane. If all you are getting is dust, something is wrong.
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aging Amati arching baroque bass bar blocks bridge corners Cremonese design edge work f-hole fingerboard fittings graduation graft ground labels laser linseed oil Maroger neck oddities pegs photography pigments purfling repair ribs rough sound Stradivari strings studs texture tools varnish visiting dignitaries wood workshop