Scarnatura: the first thing to do at the factory
In this videos, originally Facebook Live, I went to the butcher to buy some lamb row intestines to show you the first part of the cleaning.
This should never be done in a river directly, because the clod water will result in a stiffer gut. Normally the gut is left for at least a couple of days in water at 18/20°C so that the fermentation helps the cleaning. But I didn't feel like doing it in my bathroom: opening my facebook page in my bathroom seemed not a nice start, this location is much nicer... and the smell is not too strong this way!
This entertaining video below shows what I had in mind to show you myself. Unfortunately the material I had was already cleaned from the big waste part.
Of course we do not need to put it inside out to make strings...
...and this is how they normally do today, with machines, in modern casings factories:
At the end you see a inox table with intestines arriving from another room, probably from upstairs , on a slide. One after another, this is the “capacity” of the slaughtering process upstairs.
This is how it works in a slaughter house: a different room for each part of the process, so that not all of the workers are directly connected with the death moment. They just see the parts, like in a butcher shop.
Animals are not slaughtered for their guts, but for the meet. So, if you are ethically concerned, before wandering if it is really worth to use gut strings, I would recommend not to waste food. It would already be a great difference. In the world are slaughtered more animals per day than the people living on earth, like if we all ate one animal per day... and I am speaking only about cows, pigs, chickens, not to mention wild animals, fishes and others.
Tags
baroque music, double-bass strings, early music, gut strings, gut strings history, gut strings maintenance, gut strings manufacture, viol strings, viola da gamba strings, viola strings, violin strings, violoncello strings
“I couldn’t play without varnished strings. Yes, I know they are not historically correct, but there is no other way for me, as my hands are so sweaty and I am so busy, that I move from hard air-conditioned to hot and humid environments even trice per day.”Is this familiar to you? I hear this
Read MoreWhen I suggest roughly polished strings instead of smooth heavily polished ones, I often receive a squint like I am interfering with personal choices on musical taste, or with technical issues of an instrument which I have never seen, let alone played. It’s always been difficult for me to explain why I am firm on this
Read MoreOn the sensibility required to make wound strings Wound strings are a matter of hand sensibility and control of the string maker: even if a machine is involved, it is real craftsmanship to make a good wound string. The factors involved are many, from the quality and gauge of the core, how much it is
Read More