Sevcik was a violinist and instructor whose methods focused on technique, precision, and deconstruction. A lot of instructors still use his exercises. There aren't many better tools out there, in my opinion.

The other story is that he had to have it enucleated because of an illness. But the E string story is certainly the more exciting version and it persists, so who knows. [...] I'm not a good judge of what's metal.