Peter KG's Bench

[Guest]

Thanks for the photo Carl. Alchemist amber varnish has a 3:1 oil/resin ratio. Did you have to use dryers? It's been several years since I used it. If you want a darker varnish you could tone down the yellow before applying the clear varnish. Personally I would start off with a darker ground color. Look at Peter's ground color and varnish for example.

[Peter K-G]

20 hours ago, Patrick KREIT said:

It seems to me that the color is darker than the previous samples.

www.kreitpatrick.com

If I may say so myself - it's great! Really dark and thick. As you see from these images it wouldn't be possible to use it without proper grounding (only one diluted layer on white wood). It's almost black on a stick when taken out of the jar. In previous threads I have seen 100 hour cooks that are much paler than this was after 3 hours. It is the colophony you start with that matters (and maybe some cooking skills ) 

[Peter K-G]

Thank you all for your comments!

I will post some proper tests after the varnish has settled for a couple of weeks

[carl1961]

5 hours ago, lpr5184 said:

Thanks for the photo Carl. Alchemist amber varnish has a 3:1 oil/resin ratio. Did you have to use dryers? It's been several years since I used it. If you want a darker varnish you could tone down the yellow before applying the clear varnish. Personally I would start off with a darker ground color. Look at Peter's ground color and varnish for example.

the picture is Patrick's casin ground then finished 3 coats of amber varnish,  I diluted 1:1  varnish/spirits of turpentine and because I only about mixed 2.5 ml  I used just 5 drops japan drier

 

Alchemist Amber Varnish

With a Drying Cabinet
For the use on musical instruments, with a drying
cabinet, add 20 drops of cobalt or Japan drier to
every 10 ml of Amber Varnish Dark (Linseed or
Walnut).
To thin, if desired, add no more than 1 part
varnish to ¾ part solvent*.
* Alchemist strongly advises the use of one of the
solvents mentioned below:
spirits of turpentine (essence of
turpentine) or
spike of lavender

Alchemist Amber Resin Varnishes and Oil Painting Mediums.pdf

Patrick KREIT casin ground.txt

[Peter K-G]

Carl,

The trick with this ground is to get an instant reaction with sun tanned wood and the right proportions of casein/quark

Here is two examples. The first one similar to your images, no tanning and just a mix of casein/lime that doesn't have high PH value. The other image is successful reaction on wood tanned in UV box for about a week. If you have the chance to tan it in the sun the reaction will be even more powerful. The difference is just yellow(gold) and an unmatched deep golden color.

The first image has two or three layer of varnish and the second just a very thin layer.

 

[Peter K-G]

Here is another one with no varnish

[Peter K-G]

I put some more varnish on the piece, even if it's w/o ground it looks really promising 

[Guest]

Peter

Nicely done...that is impressive.

[carl1961]

13 hours ago, Peter K-G said:

Carl,

The trick with this ground is to get an instant reaction with sun tanned wood and the right proportions of casein/quark

Here is two examples. The first one similar to your images, no tanning and just a mix of casein/lime that doesn't have high PH value. The other image is successful reaction on wood tanned in UV box for about a week. If you have the chance to tan it in the sun the reaction will be even more powerful. The difference is just yellow(gold) and an unmatched deep golden color.

The first image has two or three layer of varnish and the second just a very thin layer.

 

So you say put my violin back in the uv box to  or it is to late because it is varnished

[Peter K-G]

The reaction I was referring to is when you apply the ground on UV tanned wood. It happens instantly when you rub the casein/quark emulsion into the wood. Here is an example, but in winter time when we have no sun here and I wasn't patient enough to tan the wood more, so the reaction is not so strong.

[Peter K-G]

[Fjodor]

On 2017-07-18 at 0:06 AM, lpr5184 said:

Peter

Nicely done...that is impressive.

I agree it looks really nice in the picture.!

[Peter K-G]

I'm going to cook more so there will be free varnish for my friends 

[Fjodor]

Well I can volunteer to test drive it for you

[Evan Smith]

I enjoy watching what you do.

[Peter K-G]

17 hours ago, Evan Smith said:

I enjoy watching what you do.

[Peter K-G]

Loose strings time, violins playing by them self woke me up last night as humidity is dropping.

 

[Don Noon]

Here today it's 100F (~38C) and 10% humidity, and almost all the wooden pegs have given up.  This is the time of year when geared pegs start to look more attractive.

[Peter K-G]

How can it be so dry climate where you live, what are the weather circumstances that makes humidity go so low.

Here we associate low humidity with winter and inside our homes.

 

[Don Noon]

I'm on the Pacific coast, at the Southern end of California.  In the Summer, the weather is very stable, hot inland, and constant thermals to bring the breeze off of the Pacific.  Mild and humid.

In the Fall, cold fronts start coming down from Alaska and Canada.  If it comes in over the Pacific, we get cooler and humid.  If it comes down over the continent, the air first has to go over Death Valley and the Mojave desert before it gets to us... very hot and dry until winter sets in (then it's cooler and dry).

Here is a year's worth of local data.  You can see the ultra-stable weather thru May, June, July, and August (ignoring the obvious glitch in June).  Outside of that, we get the alternating periods of ocean and desert air, when it's impossible to keep wooden pegs up to pitch.  The temperature given is the average of the high and low for the day, not the peak, so yesterday's 40.5C peak doesn't show.  There's also a brief period at the end of Summer when the hurricanes farther South spin up some warm, humid air, as in early September.

[Szymon]

On the other hand, dear violin makers, I like to work in nights when my family sleeps. For that reason I bought for instance the silencer vacuum cleaner and made this solution. 

 

 

[Peter K-G]

It would be great to have time to do something, I haven't been able to do anything for four months now. Work (the one that puts food on the table) is taking up all of my own time. Hope I can string up the last one before Christmas.

keep on drilling, but not through the plate

[Szymon]

I understand you very well! I am a teacher of Polish literature and history. It takes me a lot of time to work in school and prepare lessons at home. Two years ago I had a very long health leave after a brain stroke and doing the violin was the best rehabilitation - I made two instruments (no. 13 and 14) during the year! Now I work at school and my hobby of making violins - weekends and nights. I greet you, Peter, and thank you very much for your advice, which I have read in this forum.

[Peter K-G]

Faded Madder pigments!

 The images aren't too comparable because the first image (2013) is taken with another warmer camera, but almost all madder (Kremer powder) has faded, the varnish hasn't change, still glossy and good.

[JohnCockburn]

17 hours ago, Peter K-G said:

Faded Madder pigments!

 The images aren't too comparable because the first image (2013) is taken with another warmer camera, but almost all madder (Kremer powder) has faded, the varnish hasn't change, still glossy and good.

I've never seen commercial madder fading to this. Has it been deliberately exposed to strong sunlight for long periods?

I've a couple of instruments that I wouldn't mind fading!