I tried the chipbreaker trick...

[Patrick Chase]

Serious question for the gurus. What is the benefit of the shavings "shooting straight out"? Sometimes they come straight out, sometimes they roll up like Egyptian scrolls, and I have never noticed a huge difference in the surface.

Straight up is a sufficient but not necessary indicator that you've "broken" the shaving. In other words, if the shaving comes out straight then you know you've achieved a type-2 shaving (hence "sufficient"). If it comes out curly then you have to look at other indicators such as surface quality to figure out what's going on (hence "not necessary").

If you look at the infamous Kato/Kawai video you'll see that their shavings curled in basically all configurations, so clearly you can get good tearout mitigation without a straight shaving.

I think the big variable here is thickness - if the shaving is too thin then it will tend to curl no matter what.

[Allan Speers]

I almost brought the same point up earlier, but thought it would be a bit obscure for the forum. If you look at the size/composition of the groups that performed Baroque music (small) and the venues in which it was performed (also small) it's vastly different from common practice today. There are many chamber groups that strive to recreate "authentic" Baroque performances with varying degrees of success. It's worth checking out if you're at all interested (unless they're messing with alternative tunings and you have absolute pitch as I do. Anything other than A440 hz is like nails on chalkboard for me).

As George says, the reputation of the Italian makers grew quite a bit over the centuries because the music changed in a way that favored their attributes. The relatively "assertive" tone of the Strads etc was better suited to concert halls...

FWIW, no even THAT is correct. While a Strad was indeed louder & brighter than, say, an Amati, (or an earlier baroque violin) almost no Strad or Del Gesu exists today in it's original, complete form. Most had longer necks added, and the neck angle & relief changed, so as to get more volume and brightness than the original makers intended, even with these fine instruments.

However, I'm not sure exactly how they had heir chip breakers adjusted.

[Patrick Chase]

FWIW, no even THAT is correct. While a Strad was indeed louder & brighter than, say, an Amati, (or an earlier baroque violin) almost no Strad or Del Gesu exists today in it's original, complete form. Most had longer necks added, and the neck angle & relief changed, so as to get more volume and brightness than the original makers intended, even with these fine instruments.

However, I'm not sure exactly how they had heir chip breakers adjusted.

The context for that comment was a comparison to Stainer's violins - IIRC even an Amati in original condition would be considered bright compared to those.

I knew that basically all instruments that old have had "work done", but had no idea of the extent. Do you happen to know if the same is true for Cellos (my instrument) from that era?

[Kees Heiden]

Every shaving starts curly, but it is the combination of the chipbreaker, it's angle and position, the direction it shoots the shaving to AND the wall oposite of the blade that makes the shaving straight. But only when the shaving is slightly thicker, like others said, a very thin shaving remains curly. In a plane without a wear (the wall oposite of the blade) You get tight curls instead of longer shavings. And you can see this in the Kato video very well, they continue to roll up, but the radius of that curl depends on the chipbreaker setting.

BTW, there is another reason why a BD plane has advantages, other then the improved surface quality. Especially with thicker shavings, a plane with a tight set chipbreaker is easier to push then a similar plane with a high cutting angle. And in a plane with a lower cutting angle the blade is being pressed down in the wood by the shaving, something that is gradually lost with higher cutting angles. Those will start to feel like you have lost all clearance sooner.