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Showing results for tags 'cleaning'.
Found 6 results
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Hello Maestronet hive mind - I need some help. I have just received a violin I bought at auction (unseen due to the the 'Rona) and it is unexpectedly good. Although rather battered the sound is terrific but...at some point in its life it looks like someone has put a sticker on the varnish and it has left a horrible residue. I have tried to remove it with a cloth and my magic spit, but no dice. The violin is 130 years old so I need to be really careful. Any ideas?
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I know we've covered this in bits and pieces...but it keeps cropping up. Given how many (re: endless) varnishes there are out there (alchemy anyone?) how do we know what cleaning process/es is going to be safe for that particular instrument and NOT cause some bizzarre chemical reaction or other damage? I have only ever used a damp cloth (just damp enough to move the dirt, then I dry immediately if necessary) and a bit of spit on tough spots. I haven't ever tried a chemical because of potential issues. So when I see recommendations of products such as Simple Green, I wonder how 'safe' this is? How do you know? Do you want to risk it? When is water and spit not enough? I've been doing this for 45 years...never needed more. But I can see tougher cleaning approaches might need to be taken in some cases...or not?
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Hi everyone, I am currently working on my first violin repair and just finished cleaning a pretty filthy violin! I bought it thinking it could help me learn a few repair techniques. Cleaning it has revealed many spots that require some varnish touch-ups (once I repair the sides). I was wondering what pre-made varnishes you would recommend, or some varnish touch-up kits. Could different shades of "Joha oil varnish" do the job? I've read on many threads that spirit varnish is usually more preferred for touch-ups though. Also, I don't really need huge quantities of varnish. (https://www.internationalviolin.com/Shop/varnish-supplies/oil-varnish-extracts) Thanks in advance for your advice!
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Hi colleagues, after publishing the article about strings care and cleaning a few days ago, we have got plenty of e-mails from our customers. They refer we have forgotten to mention cleaning strings by a cork. They were allegedly advised such method on Maestronet. I have to admit we have not included this method, since I did not suppose it could be so popular. In fact, this turned to be the least effective and most string damaging method ever, unfortunately. We will publish more details soon.
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Ig Noble, that is. In Chemistry, not Violin Repair.... My favorite set of prizes, from my favorite journal From the Journal of Irreproducible Results, (now an unfortunate name change to Journal of Improbable Research) a highly respected journal out of the bastion of intellectual perspicacity in Cambridge, Hahvad. See here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1506167?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents And for press reports of this momentous occasion, we turn to the BBC, for those of us who favor Swans : https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45513012. Reemember when there was a discussion(s) about violin cleaning? Here is the link for one of them: Everyone wanted a substitute for spit. Some recommended water; others Hill's polish, etc. Or maybe no one recommended violin polish, especially not Hill's from Shar. I offered to have sent our esteemed moderator something I picked up from a vendor that was called "Violin Spit." The vendor claimed that she analyzed spit and created a substitute with enzymes, etc. Turns out she was on to something... Someone also mentioned cleaning kid's faces with mother's spit, but that came from Ahn Ahbah, not Hahvahd.
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Hello there, I'm a new member, but I've used threads from this forum as an information source many times before. I'm a Danish cellist with a lot of hobbies, one being restoration of old violins. I'm rather new to it, though, and have only repaired one violin yet with a nasty sound post crack, so I need to gain a lot of experience. I picked this violin up from a luthier's shop window in Schleswig, Germany. He told me it's a 200 or more years old violin from Mittenwald. I asked why the maker didn't use flamed wood for the neck when the body seems to be of rather nice wood and he said that it was probably made by another person than the body like some sort of production line, just like the trade instruments. After staring at it in admiration ever since I purchased it, I've formed a theory that the neck might actually be made later instead of a neck graft. I think there is lots of attention to detail in the body, but not so much in the neck, and the combination seems weird to me. However, I don't have much experience, so I would love if someone could help me identify it. I have taken pictures with my phone, and I've observed a few details: The fingerboard seems to have been too low on this neck and have been lifted with a thin, angled piece of maple. Is that normal? The fingerboard has grooves from the strings The upper right corner where the left hand might rest is weared down a lot so it has a curve down and is even cracked along the purfling. The back has marks after having a chin rest mounted for both a right- and left handed player. Maybe it's been a student violin and used by many people? However, it only has marks in the c-bout on the treble side. It has been repaired in five cracks in the top and one in the side. The stamp on the inside looks a lot like the one of Christian Wilhelm Seidel, but especially the d is not as swung. I can't find anything anywhere matching this font. Does anybody recognize this branding? I can't upload my photos from my phone, so they're on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0fyVNePhekSc2hsa2xxT3pTSWM My last question is one that I know has been asked too often: It's horribly firty with rosin buildup etc, how should I clean it? I've done my best with a damp cloth, but it's not really enough. I've heard turpentine should be safe on rosin varnishes (this should be dragon blood according to the seller), and it seems to work, but I don't really like how hard the turpentine itself is to get off the surface. I'm not asking how I should clean my instrument casually, but how I should do if I want to be the amateur luthier who enjoys making old stuff play again. Lastly, of course I won't do anything stupid to a really good instrument while I'm still learning, and it will under any circumstanced be taken to my luthier when I get home before I touch it. Sorry for the long post, but I hope someone out there can help me. - Tobias :-)
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