Watching Yasuoki Tanaka work is like stepping back in time. Surrounded by hand tools and little vials of resin-colored liquids in the workshop at his Columbia home, he combs out strands of thick, ...

RED WING, Minn.—With a small saw, hunched over his woodworking bench, Mike Burns cut a tiny wedge from a block of maple wood about the size of a Tic Tac. The wedge will go into what’s called a frog.

WARREN, Pa. — Katie Ferrie is a luthier — one who makes or repairs stringed instruments. And she sells herself best by calling herself “a repairman who plays.” Ferrie, originally from Erie, Pa., has ...

A Cape Breton man is trying to expand his niche business as one of the only people on the island who repairs fiddle bows. Yvon LeFort has a keen ear for music. When he listens to a good fiddle song, ...

It’s a workshop on violins, but the venue resembles a mechanic’s workshop. In a small room at maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman’s house in T. Nagar, California-based violin-maker James Wimmer is demonstrating ...