Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-26
WOMEN TO MAKE vIoLINs.
Her Sensitive Fingers Adapt Her for
the Calling.

From the Brooklyn Eagle.
Not only in the making of violins is there
apt to be a good field for women's work.
but in the repairing of them, which is even
more of business than the manufacture
today, as good violin Is supposed to last
many years, and not wear out as the piano
does, after a few years of use. For this
branch of work women's sensitive fingers
are particularly adapted. The violin is an
| instrument very liable TO accident by rea-
son of its frail construction. When that is
taken into account it will readily be seer
what opportunities there are in the ''restor-
Ing of a violin which has been broken, and
the money there is to be made by an expert
in the work, when $50 or so will be charged
by a prominent violin maker for restoring
a broken violin. OF course, none but an ex-
pert can command such prices, but even at
a much less figure violin repairing pays"
AS to the best locality for setting up in bust
ness, either in making repairing v!olins,
the newer centers of life and wealth in the
west or northwest seem to be the Mecca
toward which young violin makers are
turning. 1t is an attested fact that Man
haitian is we'll stocked with violin makers
and repairers, and though a good living
seems possible to be made by new experts
that there are almost no experienced violin
makers in the west, and that, therefore,
the field for an expert in the art there Of
fers greater possibilities than in the east.
With regard to this prospective field of
endeavor for the twentieth century woman.
an Eagle reporter interviewed an expert
enced local violin maker. asking particular
ly about the time required to master the
business and the likelihood of returns
1t depends largely upon the capabilities
of the pupil, whether she will learn the
business slowly or quickly said the violin
maker. 'Of course, women who have Mad
courses in wood carving, and can handle
tools. or those who possess marked me-
chanical ability, will acquire a knowledge
OF violin making more quickly than others.
When the business Is once learned violin
can be made in two or three weeks, and if
it turns out we'll it will be worth from $50
to $50 for ordinary types and increased
prices for Instruments fashioned from es-
pecally fine grades of wood. Fine woods,
such as mahogany or rosewood, are not
used in violin making. The best woods for
the purpose are spruce and maple, with
sorry parts of the instrument. The Christ
mas tree which you see SO much here is in
reality the tree which furnishes the violin
wood. The tree is a little different in Ger
many from what it is here. but it is the
same variety of tree, and the wood pro-
here for violin making. as it is cut differ
emily. To cut boards for violin making in
parallel slices is to spoil them for the pro-
duction of sound. By cutting up the trunk
from the heart of it outward and in a
wedge shape a more even vein is obtained
The pieces of wood which show the most
beautiful veinng, as in the birdseye MAPLE
are not the best pieces for violin, as the
sound is interfered with by the convolutlons
and irregular veins of the wood"