Fridolin Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Hello everyone and greetings from Heidelberg (Germany) I have just finished building my first violin and I have so far found the discussions on this Forum very helpful during construction of the instrument. I have now come to the difficult part of varnishing, and I think I have made about every mistake one can make (I guess this is the way you learn it...). Although I collected a lot of literature on violin varnish, somehow a lot of questions remain unanswered. My first attempt was to varnish with a spirit varnish composed of propolis, mastic and sandarac as described by Klawitter in his book. I was not able to create an even surface and I believe, that my brushing technique caused the underlying varnish layer to go into solution again, leaving bare wood at some spots... Since oil varnish is supposed to be applied more easily, I would now like to switch. I read, that incorporation of resins during drying/polymerization/oxidation of the linseed oil makes the resins insoluble during application of the next layer. My questions concerning this are: 1) Does this effect work only if you boil resins with the linseed oil or does it also work if you first dissolve (e.g. mastic) in turpentine an then mix in the cool linseed oil as it is done for the "Darnton mastic varnish". 2) The Darnton mastic varnish sound very interesting to me. Since mastic is considered to be a very soft resin, I wonder if it would be possible to combine it with other resins. Does anyone have a good suggestion and /or experience with e.g. propolis, sandarac or anything else. Thank you all in advance for your help! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fiddlecollector Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 You will not have any problems with the underlying layer dissolving with oil varnish,as long as its had a day or so to dry. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MANFIO Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Another way is getting a good ready made oil varnish, you will profit from years of the varnish maker... Making varnish itself is an art, varnish supplies are costy, you will spoil some recipes so, eventually, it's better using a good ready made oil varnish. Many professionals are using it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Seth_Leigh Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Yeah, but as a hobbyist, sometimes half the fun is in doing it yourself. I've spent way more time and money making varnish than I ever would have spent just buying a commercial varnish, but I have the satisfaction that my two violins so far were finished with varnish I made myself, and to a large degree that varnish was colored with pigment I made myself. Does it really matter a fig in this world, except to me? Probably not, but by the nature of being a hobbyist, most of it's just for me anyhow. To Fridolin: I definitely think you'll enjoy your experimentation with oil varnish, and would highly recommend you order some mastic and make some of Darnton's mastic varnish first. It's the easiest, and is good stuff. The hardest part of it all really is going to be what you color it with. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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