MIMF

this is my first post here at the new site. Here is a photo of one of the latest 5 string violins that I have made.

Nice work Barry!

Seconding Charlie's comment, you always do beautiful work.
However Barry, please note that we do not allow links to commercial websites in signatures, please edit your account to reflect this. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Thanks.

Done...everything seems to be working fine.

Thanks Barry!

Gorgeous, Barry! What wood is the back? Walnut?

hey Jim, yeah that 's Oregon Black Walnut. I have made about 5 out of walnut and they really sound great. Bobby Hicks has one of my walnut 5 strings.

I love the way that walnut looks, Barry. I'm going to have to try it for my next fiddle. Care to name your supplier?

Barry, that's just pure-d-breathtaking. Are you going to show us the front? I know it'll be cool.

Here are a couple of shots of the front. you will notice the wire from the bridge. I like to shoot the front with out the jack for the pick-up but I can't remove the wire except through Photoshop.

Very nice, Barry. Nice warm color and I like the way the lighting shows off the contours. Thanks for the pic.
The walnut is gorgeous.

For anyone looking for black walnut, if you like the stripey look of the wood (not referring to undulating grain figure) look for air dried, NOT commercially processed wood that has been kiln dried. The heat and moisture in the kiln drying process causes the colors to "run" and you end up with more or less monochrome color. If done well there should be no structural difference, but air dried retains the original stripe pattern. Also, not all walnut has prominent stripes.

Some air dried walnut is quite colorful, with colors ranging from red to brown to grey as well as having the creme colored sap wood. My understanding is that walnut is steamed or boiled to redistribute the pigments in the wood to give the sapwood the appearance of the more desirable heart wood. It makes everything a dull grey compared to air dried wood. For cabinet work, having uniformly colored wood is generally seen as desirable, one reason stains are often used on furniture pieces.

This particular piece is a piece of "crotch" walnut that happens to have flame as well.