I wonder what he's doing with the black dust while carving the top. Tapping it to see the shape or how the wood moves?

^Talked to a luthier friend of mine. They're typically poppy seeds because they're so light, and the person carving the top is looking for certain symitries and shapes. Sometimes a tuning fork is used to impart a specific fequency to the top, allowing the maker to "tune" it.

Just thought I'd like to know.

*bravo

Adding video to channels (Bravo) - requested by Deano.

Since you're so curious, Schmawy, it's called "free plate tuning", and it was developed by the recently departed Carleen Hutchins...

Carleen Maley Hutchins (May 24, 1911 – August 7, 2009) was an American former high school science teacher, violinmaker and researcher, best-known for her creation, in the 1950s/60s, of a family of eight proportionally-sized violins now known as the violin octet (e.g., the vertical viola) and for a considerable body of research into the acoustics of violins. She was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Hutchins’s greatest innovation, still used by many violinmakers, was a technique known as free-plate tuning. When not attached to a violin, the top and back are called free plates. Her technique gives makers a precise way to refine these plates before a violin is assembled.

From 2002 to 2003, Hutchins’s octet was the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Titled “The New Violin Family: Augmenting the String Section.” Hutchins was the founder of the New Violin Family Association[1], creator-in-chief of the Violin Octet, author of more than 100 technical publications, editor of two volumes of collected papers in violin acoustics, four grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, an Honorary Fellowship from the Acoustical Society of America, and four honorary doctorates. In 1963, Hutchins co-founded the Catgut Acoustical Society, which develops scientific insights into the construction of new and conventional instruments of the violin family.

The Hutchins Consort, named after Hutchins, is a California ensemble featuring all eight instruments.[2]

In 1974, Hutchins and Daniel W. Haines, using materials supplied by the Hercules Materials Company, Inc. (Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory) of Cumberland, Maryland, developed a graphite-epoxy composite top that was determined to be a successful alternative to the traditional use of spruce for the violin belly.[3]

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 10:18pm PST - promote requested by original submitter schmawy.

"Interesting anecdote about her is that she once stole a piece of perfect maple from a university phonebooth, replacing it with a replica. Cool lady."

schmawy

I stole some copper phone wire from the town and replaced it with cheepo standerd wire , so i could use the copper wire in my headphones dose this make me a cool man ? or a selfish robber ?

As long as it was still to code, and no one was the wiser, it makes you a totally cool dude in this cat's eyes.

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The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 2:40 - length declared by bareboards2.