pbelin

Valid point, but.. The instruments we want to emulate (not all of us, I know...) would have been properly restored. There are very few Strads with ugly cracks, so I'm not gonna make one just because it might look old

Another thing. For one large-ish scratch, make 10 medium ones, 100 small, hardly visible ones, and 1000 that won't be visible unless you use a loupe. When you're done, clean the large one because that's what almost anyone would do on an old instrument...

Ok thanks!

Cooked rosin (limed) with washed and cooked linseed oil, nothing fancy. Rosin to oil 2 or 3 to 1. The varnish itself is cooked too, it's not a cold mix. Turpentine and a bit of spike oil to spread.

My freshly applied varnish is strongly fluorescent white, and upon drying it becomes duller and goes towards an orange fluorescence. Can anyone explain that?

If you consider that the oil and the resin separate over time in a cold brew, it's also likely that the ratio changed... I find this very interesting btw. On another subject I'm still puzzled by BB finding a protein layer and Echard not... I you test my instruments you will also find it on some, on others not, on some only on the spruce, but they both seem to get consistent result, just different ones.

My experience is that if you use a very lean varnish (4:1),it sets so quickly that you have no chance to varnish a cello. Adding a little bit of raw linseed oil slows the tack time considerably without changing the proportions so much. Brigitte Brandmair, with whom I talked about that, thinks it would explain the different crackling found on cellos vs violins. As for a lean varnish being too brittle, I noticed my varnish becomes tougher with time, and the various layers of polish melted into the varnish probably softened it a little.

https://www.anipo.org/ This is an rfid chip system

This sharp edge is very practical to have a clean finish att he collar.

That's a shame, I'm sure I'd have loved it!

Ok, leave Stradivari and Bergonzi aside.. (I saw a violin certified as Bergonzi a couple of months ago, I could have sworn the scroll was a 1720's Strad...). That wasn't the point anyway. My point is that team work can be better than a one man shop. If I start experimenting with new varnish, or if I try to understand how I can use modal analysis, nothing gets built in my shop. So I progress less than if someone was helping me out.

I don't get all he fuss about instruments made by teams. We can go pretty far back to find that it was the case in most great workshops. Are some Stradivaris worth less because one can clearly identify Bergonzi's hand? What about Vuillaume? Why should it be any different when it's Greiner, Hargrave, von Baehr...? Being alone means one has to produce violins to live, and leaves less time for experiments and progress, and very little time for error...

Try sonowood. Only we can establish the decent track record.

C'mon, we all know this is the only proper way to fit a bridge!

Don't worry, no one can.. Thank you for the great picture Manfio! More interesting than the wing imo is the way the flames are better sealed along the purfling... Glue ghost from purfling? Or can it just be from the shark skin finish?