Home - Templates

A few thoughts



The template is the basis of all your work on the violin, so a lot of effort should go into its proper execution. You have to decide whether you are building an exact copy of an existing instrument or an approximated interpretation of an existing instrument or an original construction.

In case of an exact copy, you will use a full size template describing the outline of the copied instrument to the greatest detail. If this instrument is of any considerable age and has been used, it will have at least some wear. That wear will get copied as well. The shape of the instrument itself changes over time, the wood shrinks differently in various directions. All that gets copied. Choosing this approach, if you want to arrive at something "right" you have to work very precisely, because you are at least 8 "generations" away from the original outline and every generation brings some amount of error with it.

In case of an interpretation, you can still use a full size template, which you will "correct" to some degree. You can remove obvious spots on the outline, where the wear has caused the shape to deteriorate and you can also correct some of the asymmetry.

Besides the full size template, you can use a half template, which you flip on the other side to get perfect symmetry. The downside of this is that you will have to choose which half of the original violin you will use. Without correction, if the original violin is very asymmetrical you will end up with a very differently shaped violin. To illustrate this, get a picture of someone`s face, and use just the left or right half to reconstruct the whole. The change may be quite dramatic.

Knowing all that, for a novice, who is very likely to introduce a lot of errors, the symmetrical template is almost always a better choice. Remember, errors tend to accumulate with iterations.

You may also decide that you want to construct the outline yourself, without it being directly based on any existing violin. There are many systems of violin construction out there but to me the most simple ones, based on the use of compass and basic geometry seem the most plausible. For an in depth approach to this, see the great François Denis` book Traité de lutherie.

//Because this manual is meant mainly for beginners, we will take the full outline and convert it into a half template from which in the next chapter we will construct a perfectly symmetrical mould. The full size outline is based on the famous Messiah violin, built by Antonio Stradivari in 1716. This violin is in perfect shape with no discernible wear, so we will even out just the obvious irregularities which are the result of handwork.//

The template



  1. For the half template use a 2 mm thick sheet of plexiglass, or aluminium which is at least 15 cm wide and 38 cm long.
  2. Get the outline of the violin you want to interpret. You can either copy the outline from an existing violin or, you can buy a Strad poster, which, on its back has the outline plus the arching curves and other measurements. The outline should look something like in Fig. 1.

    If you decided to build the Messiah violin in this guide, you can take a short cut and print out the finished half template in Fig. 4. This template should be 350 mm long. If for any reason you cannot print the template to scale from your web browser, save the svg image and print it from Inkscape (with proper margins). Note that different Inkscape versions tend to render the template to different sizes so you may need to resize it (in Inkscape) to its real-world length of 350 mm. Now you can skip to the gluing as described in paragraph 9.

  3. Copy this outline using a photocopier or print out the outline in Fig. 1. You should preferably use a printer that is capable of printing on A3 size papers, as the outline is over 35 cm long, but an A4 printer can also be used as long as you manage to join the prints together correctly.
  4. Determine the centerline of the outline. Measure the widths in points A, B and C, divide by 2 to determine the true center of the violin. See Fig. 2.
  5. Mark out the points X1 and X2, about 8 cm in from top and bottom, see Fig. 3. These will serve as fixing points for correct alignment later on the mould.
  6. On the side, which you chose for the half template, construct the contour of the template. This contour is inferred from the plate outline, minus the overhang, minus the thickness of the ribs, which in our case makes, in total, about 3.3 mm. Use a compass to draw a parallel line inside the outline, see the red line in Fig. 3.

    During this process of parallel tracing you also have a chance to correct anything you don`t like about the original outline of the violin. You want to even out the bumps without loosing the original.

  7. The general 3.3 mm inset can be applied to all of the shape, except for the corners. There the inset gradually increases. The increase is steeper in the C bout and less so coming from the upper and lower bouts. Depending on the original model, the end of the ribs may be 0-4 mm inset from the end of the corners. The good common value here is 2 mm, see the dashed lines denoting the ends of the ribs in Fig. 3.

    It is therefore a good idea to try to draw the complete corners, including ribs, for reference. From this you can infer the inner outline of the mould. Study the corner construction in Fig. 3.

  8. Once you have the template outline complete, draw the remaining line which runs parallel to the centerline about 8 mm off the centerline, closing the template.
  9. Glue the half template outline to the plastic or aluminium sheet as mentioned in Par. 1. It is preferable to use some sort of superglue, as other glues may tend to peel. This, of course, depends on the material you`re using. Avoid the use of water based glues altogether as those will cause the paper to spread, leaving you with a bigger outline.
  10. Carefully cut out the outline of the template and finalize its contour with a file. About 3 cm from top and bottom cut out notches which will help you see the centerline when aligning the template to the mould. You can see the finished template in Fig. 4.
1
2
3
4

ʕʘ̅͜ʘ̅ʔ

Promoting your website is inexpensive Click Here - 2023-12-22 03:28:07
I inspected the template 4 SVG. The height="1238.7472" for 350mm assumes 90 DPI. You'd have to set 90 DPI loading the SVG. Many apps including Inkscape uses 96 DPI by default. This is why 96/90 = 107% scaling was necessary. - 2023-12-18 02:08:23
I mannaged to print on two A4s keeping the scale (350mm long template in figure 4). First, I "print to PDF" using the A3 size, but with 107% scale. Then, I really printed out that PDF file in A4 using the "poster" option on adobe, with regular 100% scale. After that, I glued the two parts together and it matched correctly the 350mm and the other measurements. - 2023-10-06 17:07:06
Print it out on two A4s, cut, glue together. - 2022-12-24 14:14:53
Is there any way to do this if we have to have it printed at a store like Office Depot? It's pretty difficult, nobody around here offers A3 paper, just ledger which is slightly off size. - 2022-12-09 23:54:13
Sorry،I meant figure four - 2022-08-12 20:23:41
Hi.What is the length and height of the figure3? - 2022-08-12 20:19:41
Just open the svg plans in Inkscape and print it to PDF file. Then print the PDF file either on A3 printer or using the "poster" feature in the printing dialogue in Adobe Acrobat, which will allow you to print the outline on multiple A4 pages which than can be cut and glued together. - 2022-07-18 00:56:40
Is there any way to do this if we have to have it printed at a store like Office Depot? It's pretty difficult, nobody around here offers A3 paper, just ledger which is slightly off size. - 2022-07-08 23:00:13
Avoid using cardboard, it get's difficult to cut the outlines after gluing the printed template to the cardboard... - 2022-04-20 16:11:03
teşekürler. - 2021-06-14 16:38:02
Muchas gracias excelente información saludos de Oaxaca, México - 2021-03-30 12:02:10
Vielen Dank für die Info und die Schablonen - 2020-09-05 21:56:34
thank you. - 2020-08-06 22:19:55
Great instructions and comments! Thank you - 2020-04-02 15:41:08