Month: October 2022

Utagawa Hiroshige  (1797 – 1858)

Kazuyuki Ohtsu (b.1935)

As you can see, the inside surface of the lute body is  clean, and I can now glue reinforcing strips along the seams.

I have cut the strips from medium weight rag/cotton paper: that is the traditional method. I don’t see any particular merit in changing something that has lasted the distance.

Many contemporary makers prefer to use modern material – but I recall the comment of a famous luthier, now departed:

“The way a lute is made affects the quality of the sound”.

Fascinating thought!

I have used these miniature steel Scrapers to clean up the inside of the lute body.

They are not sharpened like chisels. I run a burnishing iron two or three times along the cutting edge, at a slight angle – and this is sufficient to create an effective scraping ‘hook’.

The edge has to be renewed from time to time. It produces a beautiful polished finish.