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jdowning
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That's a good question Chris but I am not sure if anyone knows the answer with certainty.
Nailed neck joints were employed until about the mid 19th C and then abandoned in favour of dovetailed neck joints for violins and guitars (i.e. for
those instruments not built in the Spanish way). The attached image shows this type of joint in a late 19th C violin.
Violin maker Ed. Heron Allen - writing in 1885 ('Violin Making - as it was and is') confirms that "in olden days the neck was often fixed to the back
with a nail or screw, an expedient extremely deleterious to the fiddle" (although he does not explain why this was, in his opinion, such a bad
practice or why the early violins with nailed necks managed to survive for so long). So the knowledge associated with the early nailed neck joint
technique has been lost - and it is not otherwise possible to tell from surviving instruments if pilot holes were used.
It is possible that nailed neck joints were once also used on ouds but this cannot be confirmed as no ouds survive prior to the end of the 18th C.
Indeed, perhaps this practice originated in early oud construction and so was adopted by the lute makers of the 16th and 17th C?
I am not sure if any lute makers today use nailed neck joints so the only way to find out the best way to do it - is to try to do it!
Some violin makers, who are building replicas of early violins, report having tried the method - some drilling pilot holes in neck and neck block
others just in the neck block to initially guide the nail(s).
The difference between a nailed violin and lute neck joint is that the joint on a violin is vertical and the neck made of hard maple whereas the lute
neck joint slopes and the neck is made with a soft wooden core veneered on the outside with a harder wood.
I conclude from these trials that - for lutes - it may be best to drill a pilot hole in the neck block only and use temporary guide blocks to prevent
any possibility of relative movement of the joint faces as the nail is finally hammered into place.
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Aymara
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Yes, so here's the next question, that might be interesting 
Since when were small thin nails available, that were suitable for this luthery task?
Were they already available in the middle ages? I fear, not ... only large thick nails. Or am I wrong?
Greetings from Germany
Chris
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jdowning
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No question that nails used for joining wood have been around for at least 3000 years (Egyptian bronze) and that hand forged iron nails were being
used by Roman carpenters around 10 BC.
Any blacksmith - past or present - can or could hand forge iron nails of any size, thickness or thinness required for any purpose with even the most
'primitive' equipment. It is a pretty straight forward manual task.
So, of course, small thin hand forged iron nails would have been available to the luthier in the middle ages.
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Aymara
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Quote: Originally posted by jdowning  | | So, of course, small thin hand forged iron nails would have been available to the luthier in the middle ages. |
So it would theoretically (!) be possible, that the "nail technique" has already been practiced in the times of Ziryab / Al Andalus around 800 AD.
Greetings from Germany
Chris
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jdowning
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Yes - given that iron nails would have been available. However it is impossible to say if oud makers did used nailed neck joints unless there is some
confirmation of the technique in the written historical record of the period (that I am unaware of at present).
Nails at the time may have been a relatively expensive item (material cost of wrought iron rod?) although pretty well any craftsman would have been
capable of hand forging their own nails with basic tools (you don't need to be a trained blacksmith) - heating the iron rod using a small charcoal
furnace (just a hole in the ground) with a simple bellows to bring the metal to forging temperature. This type of crude (but effective) furnace may
still be used by metal workers in the near East and India for forging small parts.
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Aymara
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| Quote: Originally posted by jdowning | | However it is impossible to say if oud makers did used nailed neck joints unless there is some confirmation ... |
Shure, that why I said theoretically.
| Quote: |
Nails at the time may have been a relatively expensive item ...
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Maybe not big nails for e.g. house building. But I would expect, that small things and high quality iron things were expensive, because here best
craftmanship was needed.
Greetings from Germany
Chris
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jdowning
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I have made small forged nails in a fully equipped blacksmith shop as well as using a small home built forge and less specialised tools. If anything
making small nails is easier than making large ones (spikes). Nails are not 'high quality iron things' and do not require high craftsmanship skills to
make. At a 'living history' museum where I once worked for 7 years as an historical carpenter - they had an education program for young children. One
of the projects was for them to make a nail in the blacksmiths shop - all successfully done in minimum time. Making small hand forged nails is child's
play!
For those interested, checking with YouTube there are a number of short videos showing blacksmiths making small nails - search 'nail making'.
Note that early log and timber frame buildings did not use large nails (they eventually rust away) as a structural element but used wooden pins (or
treenails) to lock the braced mortice and tenon joints of the building frame together. But that is another story.
So pretty well anyone - past or present - given the right tools can make small nails. Today the material for making nails (mild steel rod) is cheap
and readily available but - in Mediaeval times - wrought iron rod used for making nails may have been more difficult and expensive to obtain for those
other than the rich or the military.
It is hard to obtain information about costs of material in Mediaeval times. One source gives the cost of a ton (1000Kg) of wrought iron in 14th C
England as 12 Shillings (20 Shillings to the Pound Sterling). However, processed wrought iron - made into sheet, bar or rod in water powered hammer
mills for the blacksmith trade - would have been considerably more expensive (weight for weight). The average annual wage in 14th C England ranged
from 2 to 3 Pounds Sterling.
Steel (for making cutting tools, swords etc) then cost about 5 times more than wrought iron.
This scenario was probably similar throughout Europe and the Near East at the time.
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Aymara
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| Quote: Originally posted by jdowning | | ... in Mediaeval times - wrought iron rod used for making nails may have been more difficult and expensive to obtain for those other than the rich or
the military. |
Interesting point!
Thanks again for all the info.
Greetings from Germany
Chris
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jdowning
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Thanks for your interest and input Chris.
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jdowning
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Multiple nailed neck joints on lutes can be found on surviving instruments of the extended neck type - the extended neck carrying long bass strings
that are played open - total number of courses being typically 14 or more
The smallest of these lutes is the 'liuto attiorbato' with a stopped string length of about 60 cm with the largest - the theorbo - having a stopped
string length of around 90 cm.
The attached engraving is from Syntagma Musicum by Michael Praetorius published in 'Germany' in 1619 described as "Lang Romanische Theorba or
Chitarron" The scale included with the engraving shows that the instrument measured about 7 Brunswick Fuss in height (a Fuss (foot) being equivalent
to 285.4 mm) or , in today's standard, about 6ft 6 inches or 2 metres.
Extended neck lutes have essentially two neck joints - the usual neck to neck block joint (B) and the extended neck to neck joint (A).
The bending forces due to string tension acting on both joints is magnified by the extended neck - the longer the neck the greater the bending moment
at the joints. Due to the offset bass strings there is a horizontal (towards the bass side) bending moment as well as a vertical bending moment
The smaller extended neck lutes might have only a single nail in joint B and none in joint A. The larger theorbos might be found with two or more
nails in both joints - the nails in joint A being driven in through the lower pegbox opening as shown in the attached sketch. It can be seen that the
shape of this joint prevents the joint sliding apart when the nail is driven home.
The attached image of a 'Theorbo Neck' is actually the unfinished extended neck of a smaller 'Liuto Attiorbato' that I am currently constructing -
just for clarification to show the bending forces and where the nails are positioned on a larger lute.
The use of multiple nails on the larger extended neck lutes tends to confirm that the function of the nails was not only to apply a clamping force to
the joints when being glued but also to provide extra reinforcement of the joints to counter the horizontal bending moments at times when the glue had
temporarily softened.
But, in practice, there is a downside to this.
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jdowning
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The attached images of the extended neck joint of an original Theorbo by Martin Kaiser - kindly provided by London based luthier Marcos Kaiser Mori -
illustrate a potential long term problem with the use of nails. I have taken the liberty to add text to the original images - for clarity.
The original instrument is damaged. The extended neck has broken from the neck at the joint (probably due to an accidental sideways impact). The
attached x-ray image - in plan view - shows two nails in the joint but in fact there would appear to be three - two nails being applied one above the
other which may have contributed to the joint separating at this point when the glue on the bass side of the joint, through age and humidity cycles,
had become weakened and brittle (and not reinforced by the nails). Note also the corrosion and consequent disintegration of one of the nails.
Too much of a good thing perhaps?
Note that the pointed wooden sticks in one image are part of an apparatus used by Marcos to measure the original instrument see:
http://www.marcoskaiser.com
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