Lutherie

Trade Secrets: Making purfling

2021-12-21T17:36:00

TS1

A guide for luthiers who prefer to create their own strips to use in their instruments, rather than buy them ready-made

We learnt to make purfling from our masters, Francesco and Vincenzo Bissolotti, and we have continued to use this method for more than 25 years. Making your own purfling could be considered a boring extra task but we actually enjoy it, and seeing the final result brings us a lot of satisfaction. In one afternoon we can make enough purfling for the next couple of years of instrument making.

Depending on the type and model of the instrument, we like to vary the thickness of the individual strips of wood that form the purfling. Here, we describe our procedure of making purfling in a series of steps. Our hope is that this article will be of assistance to whomever tries their hand at making it…

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