This fiddle was in terrible condition when I got it.  Here's everything I did to it:

● I took the fiddle completely apart.

● The back joint was open for almost the full length of the back.  It was clear that merely clamping it would not close up the joint; the wood had warped, since the joint had been open for a long time.  I opened up the joint fully, and recut the joint, removing a tiny amount of wood.  (This is slightly visible as discontinuities in the rosing - the pen-and-ink work - of the back along the joint.)

● I regraduated the ribs, back, and top, all of which were enormously thick.  (The back and top are still somewhat thicker than usual.)

● I reassembled the body, with new blocks and linings.  The old blocks were strange, and originally there were no linings.

● Grafted the neck; the old neck was joined to the body in a strange way, which did not leave enough wood for a proper neck-body joint.

● Made a new tongue.  The teeth had been held in with enormous gobs of glue.  I put in little pieces of wood (dentures) painted black, behind the teeth.  The teeth are now glued securely to these dentures.

● Bushed all the peg holes and fitted new ebony pegs.  

● The old fingerboard and tailpiece were made in the old way, of horn glued as a facing to wood.  They were in very bad condition, and the horn of the fingerboard was very unattractive - partly black and partly white.  Worst of all, the fingerboard was too wide by far for a modern player, and I could see no way to reduce the width without doing horrible things to the decoration.  So I made a new fingerboard and tailpiece.  The tailpiece has fine tuners for the E and A strings, and all four understrings.

● New bridge, sound post, bass bar, nut, understring nut, understring guide, end button, saddle, strings.

● I put a small amount of retouch varnish over new wood, and over places where the old wood was completely bare, to keep out dirt.  However, I made no effort to replace missing rosing, whether it was missing from wear or - at the neck graft - from my own work.

● All old parts that were removed have been kept.  (They are shown in one of the pictures.)

● The instrument is now quite solid, with a modern Hardanger fiddle set-up, ready to play.