Les norsk Salve HÃ¥kedal, fiddlemaker Read english

Tips and Tricks

that may be useful for other makers?

Violin wood density

Different methods for measuring density or "specific gravity" of violin wood may be used:

Put the billet vertically into water and measure the length of the sunken part. Sunken length divided by total length should give the specific gravity, approximately..
If the billet is not of the same thickness in booth ends, you will have to turn the billet around and dip the other end too. But one end is now wet, so..

An alternative method, that makes me feel better, is to weight and measure the billets.
(Sometimes, i.e. if the wood is split, it will not have flat surfaces, so it may require some consideration to find precise values.) This may take a little more time, but a spreadsheet, or the form below can do the maths for us.

Values in grams and millimetres should be used.
If you need decimal (for A and B most probably), use point not comma for the separator.

Weight A B C D
Specific gravity = 0
Points of measurement