Joe Rashid makes violins that have been played by some of the world’s best musicians. But he refuses to sell them because he says, ‘I love them. It Is important to me not to connect money with the violins.’

NEVADA CITY, Calif. — Joseph Rashid has just finished making his 95th violin, in time for his 95th birthday.

"This is my best yet," he says, running his hand over the amber wood and pronouncing it as fine as his favorite, the esteemed No. 4, which he completed in 1937.

Rashid has been a boxer, a carpenter and an engineer, and since he retired to Nevada City in the early 1980s, he has devoted his time to creating violins that have been played by such world- renowned musicians as Yehudi Menuhin, Glenn Dicterow and members of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras.

Rashid has already surpassed the icon of the craft, Antonio Stradivari, in longevity, at least.

Stradivari built violins until he was 93. Working with assistants, he made more than 1,100 in all, and some 600 survive. The Italian craftsman was copied by many, so thousands of violins bear his name, some produced years after Stradivari’s death in 1737. The record price for a Stradivarius violin was nearly $1.6 million in 1998.

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Rashid, on the other hand, has always worked alone, and as he turns 95, he has no plans to stop. He expects to finish two more violins in 2005. And while he has received offers, he has never sold a single one.

All 95 of his creations now reside in his modest home in this historic Gold Rush town about 150 miles from San Francisco. Row upon row of the gleaming instruments are housed neatly and chronologically in cabinets he also designed and built. The colors range from deep russet to nearly red to the amber gold of No. 95, the latest violin Rashid has varnished. The tops of the cabinets are lined with photos and letters from some of the renowned violinists who have played Rashid’s creations.

"I put so much care into them. I love them. It is important to me not to connect money with the violins," Rashid says. "All my life I’ve believed what’s wrong with the world is that everyone’s trying to get rich. The greed for money is out of proportion."

It is far more rewarding to hear his violins played by many different musicians, he says.

Rashid says he also has "scientific" reasons for keeping all his violins. As violins age, the wood dries and the shape can change in ways that are subtle, but which alter the sound.

Rashid likes to dissect his instruments to see just how they have matured.

"I wanted to do research on them and in order to do that I had to take them apart every few years. If I sold them, I couldn’t do that," Rashid says. "I’ve learned a lot from them."

It is exceedingly unusual to keep such a collection of instruments together, says LeRoy Peterson, a violin professor at Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif., who has become a good friend. "It’s a gold mine."

"He couldn’t get $1 million for this because it’s new," says Peterson, lifting Rashid’s latest creation to play. "A Stradivarius is worth that because it’s a Stradivarius. But Joe’s are just as good."

Rashid says the key to their quality is that he doesn’t bend the spruce and maple he uses, and he dries the wood for at least 15 years so the shape of the finished violin is stable. That way, the sound doesn’t change over time as the wood ages.

Using handcrafted tools he engineered himself, he shapes each piece of wood in a shop off his garage, where unfinished parts of the next violins line the walls. When the weather turns cold, he brings most of the workshop into his kitchen near a wood-burning stove, where sits for hours scraping thin shavings of wood to create the curves and arches.

"To me, time doesn’t mean anything. I’ll be working on them and I’ll forget to eat. I’ll sit down and when I look up, it’s an hour later," Rashid says.

It takes him two months to apply the multiple coats of thin varnish — a combination of linseed oil, turpentine and rosin similar to the recipe used by Stradivari.

At this rate, he produces just one or two violins a year. The pace pleases him. "If I made one a month, it would just be another commercial violin. I couldn’t give them the care I give these," he says.

His meticulousness comes naturally after a career as an aeronautical engineer for defense contractor Northrop Grumman, where he retired with several patents under his name. But he didn’t always do such delicate work.

After graduating from the University of Detroit with a degree in engineering in 1932 — the height of the Depression — he found no market for his skills. "I didn’t have anything to do, so I started boxing," he says.

His misshapen nose remains a testament to that career move — he broke it in a fight and it took a year to heal. While recovering, he saw a newspaper ad that offered violin lessons for 85 cents a week. If he attended 52 lessons, he could keep the violin.

A year and $44 later, he had his violin. Then he became a carpenter’s apprentice and disassembled the instrument to study its construction. He also continued his violin lessons, studying under a conductor who tutored Rashid in exchange for boxing lessons for his two sons.

"It was a good trade," Rashid says.

Later, while designing military equipment for Northrop Grumman and raising three children, Rashid refined his craft in his spare time, producing one violin a year. He retired in the early 1970s and moved to Nevada City 20 years ago, after he and his wife divorced. His three children live in other states.

It was in 1971 that Rashid had an opportunity to measure the size, shape, curves and arches of a 1711 Stradivarius that was disassembled for restoration. The Stradivarius was then owned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and Rashid was invited to inspect it. He made a copy of the instrument the next year that Menuhin played when he was in Sacramento for a concert. Menuhin, who died in 1999, was so enthralled that he borrowed it to bring back to London, Rashid says.

"He couldn’t get over it. He kept pacing in his hotel room, saying, ‘It speaks so easily,’ " Rashid recalls. "Then he shook my hand. That was the single greatest honor I’ve received. That’s worth more than money."

Rashid, who appears quite spry and not a day older than 70, doesn’t want the violins sold off after he’s gone, but hasn’t decided exactly how to keep them together. He’s considering setting up some sort of trust to maintain the collection and allow professional violinists to borrow the instruments from time to time.

Meanwhile, he practices every day. His favorite is a red violin, No. 4, a copy of one made by Stradivari’s contemporary, Guiseppe Guarneri. His hands tremble only slightly as he lifts it to his chin. Then his hands are sure as he draws the bow across the strings, producing sweet, high notes that transform the paneled living room into a concert hall.

"I always liked this one," he says softly.