Purfling

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Purfling is a narrow decorative wooden strip inlaid into the top and (often) bottom plates of stringed instruments.

Usually purfling is a sandwich of two black strips with one white strip in the middle, measuring about .050"W x .080"D (1.25 mm x 2.00 mm), but other variations are sometimes used.

Inexpensive instruments sometimes have painted lines rather than purfling.

Authorities differ on the acoustic effects of purfling. The most often cited reason for its use is to stop cracks in the plate edge from extending past the purfling. Although some say that it reduces wear to the edge of the plate, this seems unlikely as the purfling is normally flush with the surface of the plates and is inset from their edges. The channel cut to inlay the purfling may increase the flexibility of the plates where they join the sides. As the violin, viola, cello, and string bass transmit the vibrations of the top plate to the back through the sound post rather than by flexing the sides as is done in the folk harp, there may be some advantages to controlled flexibility in this area.

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