Before I went to study violin making in the early '70s in Cremona, Italy," Allan Droyan says, "I was in casual apprenticeship with an instrument maker, Boyd Poulsen, in San Mateo (California).
"I went off to Italy and studied for a couple of years, and when I returned he offered me a job in his shop.  I made a two-year commitment and worked for him doing repair work.
"After that I went on my own and set up my own shop, specializing in acoustic double-bass repair.  It was sort of an instant business because Boyd had passed on all his bass work to me, repairing and restoring basses.  It was an incredible opportunity for a young maker starting out on his own.

Five years ago, I was doing some work on a table saw and it was lunchtime and I was rushing.  I needed to cut a few small pieces of wood, and I had one more piece to cut.  I knew I shouldn't do it, but I did.
"For a split second my attention was diverted and I pushed my finger into the saw, splitting the finger in half lengthwise about a third of the way, to the first knuckle of the middle finger of my right hand.
"I also was doing some commercial acting at this time in my life, and the first thought that came to me was, 'G------it, I'm not going to be able to do any hand commercials!'  I was furious with myself because I had no one to blame but me.
"So somebody in the shop took me over to the nearest emergency room.  I was angry the whole time, I wasn't scared.  I knew I was going to lose half the finger for sure.
"I was thinking, 'I'm going to have to explain to people what happened.'  All the vanity issues came up.  Here I was, a fine craftsman, a violin maker, and I wasn't thinking, 'Am I going to be able to work?'  I was worrying, 'Am I going to have to hide my hand?'
"So we went to the emergency room, and they called some young intern surgeon.  He took a look at the finger and said, ‘Well . . . you've lost your blood supply to the finger, you've also lost the nerve to the finger, and you've destroyed the first knuckle, so we're going to have to cut the finger off.'
"And there was an emergency-room doctor there, a young woman, and the intern was describing to her how to cut the finger off and leave a flap and sew it up, and I was listening.  And after he explained to her how to do it, he left.
"In walked another doctor, who was the head of the emergency room.  And he said to me, 'I happened to be listening outside the room.'  (In the course of the conversation I had mentioned that I was a violin maker, so they knew what I did for a living.)
"So he said, ‘I overheard your conversation.  Given the work that you do, it would be a shame to lose that finger.  You've got eight hours before you need to make a decision about this.  I just got in touch with one of the best hand surgeons in the country, and he's willing to see you if you're willing to get over to the hospital where he is.'
"I said sure.
"The friend who was with me got me over there, and Dr. Gordon met me in the emergency room.  He took a look at the finger and said, 'No problem.'
"It turned out that because I had cut the finger lengthwise, I hadn't actually cut off the blood supply.  He told me that in fact the blood supply runs along the side of your finger, not across it.
"I went into surgery that day, and what he did was, he took a piece of my hip bone and implanted it in the finger.  I lost the joint—they couldn't repair that—it was shattered—but they put a piece of bone from my hip into the finger to replace the joint.  And saved my finger.
"It was about six to eight weeks before I could think of doing anything.  Fortunately, I'm left handed, so in my work my right hand was used just for gripping.
"Today the finger is a little numb at the tip and I am not able to bend it at the joint.  Although my grip is not quite what it was before the injury, I have found that my hand has learned to compensate.  And I have my finger."

Allan Droyan is proprietor of the String Bass Shop, located in Fort Bragg, California.  His instruments (violins and violas) are played by musicians across the country, some of them in the San Jose Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  Mr. Droyan later crafted a violin for Dr. Gordon's younger son.