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Monday 7th
Toby complained to me about not being able to find his calipers last Saturday – he told me he’d searched for 20 minutes and eventually found them under a pile of wood shavings on my bench. Really... I can’t help it if some of my tools are still on the boat coming back from Australia.
He’s a bit distracted at the moment. There’s a violin in for appraisal and he seems convinced it’s Italian. In fact he’s getting quite excited about it – spent half the day poring over his reference books trying to find a match.
He asked me to play it for him and said: "There... isn’t that a perfect example of an Italian sound?" I asked him which part in particular he thought was Italian... the wolf on the F sharp or the dead spot on the D string in third position. I also mentioned that he might like to consider the possibility that it was the work of an English maker but he just grunted.
Tuesday 8th
This morning Rose commented on how she misses the sunshine in Australia! And she thinks everything has got much more expensive since we were here last!! Well, I’m certainly not about to pack up and move again.
Toby still puzzling over that ‘Italian’ violin (actually I think it looks very much like a George Wulme Hudson, but I’ll wait and see what he comes up with). I did ask him if he’d made a careful check of the top and bottom blocks but he said he’d looked inside and there were no clues at all.
Met Jack at the Spotted Dog and had a very pleasant long lunch (with a few pints of Fuller’s London Pride to wash things down). When I got back there was a chap here with a buzzing violin. Toby was fussing with the tailpiece and the nut and the bridge and getting nowhere. I’ve seen violins by this maker before... the wood has been treated and it’s notoriously difficult to glue. Eventually I felt that I had to step in and lend a hand. While he was playing it, I squeezed each corner in turn. I found the buzz was coming from the top treble corner. Tricky one though... the belly had come unstuck on the block inside, but was still holding at the edge.
Unfortunately when the chap was leaving he said to Toby: "There’s nothing like experience, is there young fellow". Toby didn’t look pleased at all and explained that he would have found it too, but he was just checking some of the more common causes first.
Later he asked me how the search for my new workshop was going. I told him that it was proving very difficult to find just the right location but I was sure it wouldn’t be very long now before the perfect place turned up... (actually, I suppose I really should start looking).
Wednesday 9th
When I got in to work today Toby asked me if I could spare some time to do a few odd jobs for him, as he’s got a lot on at the moment. I said I’d be happy to help him out... so he gave me four cellos from St Marks school to sort out! They’ve got lumpy fingerboards, pegs missing and one has the neck out!!
Thursday 10th
Toby has decided his Italian violin must either be a Felice Beretta or one of the Testores. Either way he thinks it could be quite valuable. I thought I should mention the end blocks again.
I’m not really making much progress on my violin - I seem to spend an awful lot of my time chatting to the customers. I suppose that’s what comes with being a celebrity violin maker. But it does make me wonder how Jamie Oliver ever gets time to do any cooking.
At least Toby seems to appreciate it though – he mentioned that he can get a lot more work done, now that I’m here to distract the customers.
Friday 11th
Well!!... this afternoon Toby actually suggested to me that we might go for a drink at the Spotted Dog after work! I accepted of course (...I’ve never been known to turn down an invitation for a drink). And he also said: "By the way, I had a more careful look at the inside of that violin. There was something stamped very faintly on the bottom block – George Wulme Hudson. So we were right about the sound... definitely not Italian."