ch trying plane, and
having done it to my mind, I take cork rubber, as shown on
illustration of tools used by me, No. 67, and rough sand paper, No.
2-1/2, maker's number, and proceed to scour it level--smoothness is
not essential.

With compasses 55 (again referring you to tool plate, as I shall
often have to do), I find the centre of the wood at both ends, and I
make a dot at each, then draw a distinct line down this centre,
having placed a straight edge EXACTLY over each dot. And I must
insist on this "exactly" wherever exactness that is only a
mechanical result can be obtained; in the present instance, mind,
any deviation from this base of operations, as I may safely say,
will land you in no end of difficulties, as everything must be
"square with the fiddle," as we have a habit of saying, though the
whole is a matter of curves and lines, there being nothing of
squareness about it. Having drawn this decided line, I take my half
outline, plate 1, and place it exactly where, by tracing close to
the side of it, touching every turn so that there can be no mistake
hereafter, nor any "dog leg" nor broken curve, I reverse the veneer
(the outline is of veneer) and do exactly the same as before, and
you see the whole violin drawn, except that the button at the top of
the instrument is in a rough state, and is not finished until the
neck be added at the last. Plate 2.

[Illustration: PLATE I.]

[Illustration: PLATE II.]

This outline is my own, drawn by me after Stradivari, but not by any
means a copy of that master. Dimensions are:--

Length to where button joins the body . . 14-3/8 inches.
Width of upper bout . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3/4 "
" " middle bout . . . . . . . . . . 4-3/8 "
" " lower bout . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5/16 "

To be certain that my work is correct, I will prove it (for _you_
will have to do so when you begin), ruling a line from one upper
point of lower corner to the other; and from one lower point of
upper corner to the other, which gives you a square at each end of
middle bout.

I take compasses and place the point of one leg on square centre of
broad end, and, opening until the point of the other leg touches
lower point of upper corner, I describe a curve to opposite point;
and I turn the back bottom to top, repeating the same to prove lower
corners true. And both stand the test thoroughly.

The next stage, rough as it appears in Plate 3, after cutting, will
require