Violin finish restoration

[GMM22]

I understand that the topic of restoration is complex. However, I am curious to know the very basic principles of the subject of touching up chips, flaws,and flakes. Given that there are so many varnish formulas, do better restorers try to match the varnish type and color, or do they have a multi purpose type of coating that can be color matched and used on all violins? Do they ever use artist type of paints for micro restoration and flaw correction? What are the basic principles of fixing chips and deep scratches? I am not expecting complex answers just some general starting points of consideration.

[apartmentluthier]

I believe as a general rule of thumb, all varnish touch-ups are done with spirit varnish regardless of what the original varnish was. Several suppliers have spirit in several different pre-mixed colors. You can also add alcohol soluble pigment to clear spirit. Deep scratches may best be served by a crack filler. I guess the best starting point I can think of is, keep the varnish touch-up area as small as possible.

[Andres Sender]

Anything you do must be reversible, so no oil based colors, if that's what you mean by artist's paints.

[HongDa]

I use spirit varnish for touchups and think that is what is usually used.I mix with a few different aniline colors from a pallet.

Oil varnish takes too long to dry and in some cases needs sunlight to do it;so this would be an obvious problem in using it for touch-ups.

I don't know what would be used for restoration of a large area on an instrument originally done with oil varnish.

[Terry Maurice]

There is a very good article written by Michael Darnton in "The Big Red Book of American Lutherie" Vol. 2. The article is titled "Violin Varnish Retouching." In the same book is another very informative article by Michael, titled "Violin Varnish." Both are very much worth reading. The article on retouching was written in 1989 and as an added bonus, has a picture of the young and dashing Mr. Darnton in his Chicago workshop.

Terry

[Regis]

When you restore, you may not have the luxury of dealing with a predictable, new wood surface. One thing that has helped me is to use an old junker as a test surface. I can crack it, chip it scrape it, or anything else (to match a problem) so that I might test/try a color, finish, or technique. I even take pieces out of it and cut to fit/fix small missing pieces. This is particularly useful on edges. Or, carve or gouge out a 1mm deep and 1-3mm wide strip to fit and match grain on a carved out strip/cavity where someone has poorly repaired a crack (solid but poor ugly surface).

It is a good reason to buy an "old", cheap broken e-bay violin.

I don't have as much experience as some on this board so I need some place to test and make mistakes.

[Skreechee]

Quote:

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It is a good reason to buy an "old", cheap broken e-bay violin.

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So its you who keeps outbidding me. Grrrr

[Jimbow]

Alcohol based touch up varnish sometimes causes problems with 'fish eye' effect where the color gravitates out to the edges, leaving little color or varnish in the center.

Does anyone know the cause?

Jimbow

[apartmentluthier]

Hey Jimbow. I haven't had that problem at all. Perhaps related to the violin cleaner / polish that was used on the fiddle? Any silicone contamination can cause "fisheyes". Perhaps a good wipe down with xylene prior to may help.

I really like spirit simply because it dries so fast. You can really mess around with it. For larger areas it is a bit tricky because it dries so fast, but in those cases I sometimes pad it on similar to french polish with some thinner and a bit of mineral oil. I just finished a back where someone had really screwed it up. Dark lines, stripes, weirdness . . it looked awful, but the rest of the fiddle was original. I had to strip the back, then try to make it look similar to the rest. I padded some amber on first. Then I took some thinned clear that I had mixed a bit of red and brown alcohol stain and padded that. In between that, I hand rub a bit of mineral oil to help visualize what it will look like with a bit of shine. After I was somewhat happy, I took a rag with some thinner and rubbed away a spot on the upper bout and the lower center to give the feel that it had some wear. I ended up with a few streaks and dark spots, but it just looks like part of the old messed with fiddle. I also use an air compressor and a dash gun (touch up gun) for large areas that I want to look nice and even. You can layer the color quite nicely.

I have been using the small bottles from international violin for quite sometime now with no issues. (supplied by http://www.hammerl.com/english/spirituslack.php )

[Jeffrey Holmes]

The fisheye problem, streaking, and blotches are caused by application error, in my experience. It happens when spirit touchup is applied too quickly and too "wet" in most cases...