An interesting repair, the benefits of professional restoration

We have had a nice little three quarter size cello in this month with a substantial hole in its top rib.

As Jonathan removed the front of the cello, he discovered that this had previously been repaired and that the whole area was plastered with modern synthetic glue. This glue needed to be painstakingly heated up and picked off until it was back to bare wood as nothing will stick to the synthetic glue and it is not water soluble.

Jonathan pieced back the missing wood, fitted a piece of lining to the inside of the cello to secure the repair and then made a wooden counterform for the inside and outside of the cello to enable him to clamp and glue the rib and lining into place.

When the front of the cello was replaced, there was extensive touching in work to do to the varnish of the affected area.

Before....

After!

The benefits of hide glue over synthetic are as follows;

It dries transparent so if you are gluing a crack there's no visible line or on any joint,

It's water soluble so that if a joint needs to come apart the old glue can be washed away back to bare wood ready for re- gluing,

The glue remains stable through time, there's no 'creep' or movement as there would be with a PVA type synthetic glue.