The specialist maker of violin repair tools Brian Hart has died aged 77. His was an extraordinary input into the daily working lives of violin makers and restorers, and his tools are now an integral part of restoration and found in the most prestigious workshops worldwide. Fine old instruments need maintenance, repair and restoration and Brian's tools allowed restorers to approach their work in a new way.

At the age of 15, Brian started as a turner on a lathe at a factory, soon leaving to join a light engineering company where he stayed for 23 years. One day his son, an amateur guitar maker, asked him to make him a little thumb plane. Other makers saw the plane and wanted one too, and then Brian made a small specialist chisel, and word spread. These early tools were stamped with a heart, and have become rare and collectible.

Made redundant, Brian started making more violin tools in his Aberdare workshop in south Wales. At the request of another maker he devised a wing crack clamp for repairing the violin sound hole. Knowing nothing about violins and with no preconceived notions, he embarked with a fresh canvas, unusual in the world of fine old instruments where answers to problems are traditionally sought in the past.

These beautiful, light tools are flexible and adjustable in use, with an inherent sense of aesthetic. Many have tried to copy them but the weight and flexibility have been found impossible to duplicate. Earlier this year an exhibition of 22 Stradivari instruments took place at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Not many would have made an appearance without the assistance of one of Brian's tools.

He is survived by his partner, Sheila; and by a son, Stephen, and daughter, Anne, from an earlier marriage that ended in divorce.