Varnish, how do you like it to be

[Peter K-G]

Well, not posting much lately, but the awful closed thread got me thinking.

I make varnish and I still don't agree with myself how I want it to be.

Sometimes this and sometimes that.

Just opening up a discussion....

[joerobson]

5 minutes ago, Peter K-G said:

Well, not posting much lately, but the awful closed thread got me thinking.

I make varnish and I still don't agree with myself how I want it to be.

Sometimes this and sometimes that.

Just opening up a discussion....

Viscosity, color, self-leveling...or not...

[Shunyata]

On a related note… does anyone have a library of links to helpful varnish making articles that the could share?

[christian bayon]

28 minutes ago, Shunyata said:

On a related note… does anyone have a library of links to helpful varnish making articles that the could share?

https://vernix.philharmoniedeparis.fr/vernix/infodoc/page-daccueil-infodoc.aspx

[christian bayon]

Varnish, how do you like it to be

In the bottle or at the end of the process, on the instrument?

[Don Noon]

• Adjustable red/orange/amber color
• Perfect transparency
• Resistant to hand/chin sweat
• Moderate to thick viscosity for finger painting
• Very long working time (I like to mess with it), but...
• Dries overnight in the UV cabinet
• Lasts forever in the jar without skinning or gelling
• Easy to make, or cheap to buy
• Vacuums the house and takes out the garbage

[Peter K-G]

18 minutes ago, Don Noon said:

• Adjustable red/orange/amber color
• Perfect transparency
• Resistant to hand/chin sweat
• Moderate to thick viscosity for finger painting
• Very long working time (I like to mess with it), but...
• Dries overnight in the UV cabinet
• Lasts forever in the jar without skinning or gelling
• Easy to make, or cheap to buy
• Vacuums the house and takes out the garbage

For that, I would like to send you a bottle and get feedback.

I think I would get at least 1/9 - Perfect transparency

[David Burgess]

23 minutes ago, Don Noon said:

Vacuums the house and takes out the garbage

And cleans out the gutters, mows the lawn, changes the oil and fills the gas tank on the car.

[Peter K-G]

1 hour ago, joerobson said:

Viscosity, color, self-leveling...or not...

Yeah, but how much and not.

I can't decide....

[MikeC]

1 hour ago, christian bayon said:

https://vernix.philharmoniedeparis.fr/vernix/infodoc/page-daccueil-infodoc.aspx

Wow that's a good resource that I wasn't aware of, thanks! 

[Spelman]

Green, purple, or blue.

Seriously, there are a whole lot of other colors out there besides the relatively thin slice of the spectrum that is currently used.

 

PS--I know there are a lot of market/cultural issues that prevent this from happening but I'd love to see more variety, personally.

[David Rosales]

1 hour ago, Don Noon said:

• Adjustable red/orange/amber color
• Perfect transparency
• Resistant to hand/chin sweat
• Moderate to thick viscosity for finger painting
• Very long working time (I like to mess with it), but...
• Dries overnight in the UV cabinet
• Lasts forever in the jar without skinning or gelling
• Easy to make, or cheap to buy
• Vacuums the house and takes out the garbage

Eerily similar to my ex-girlfriend's "must-have" list on her online dating profile. 

[David Burgess]

58 minutes ago, David Rosales said:

Eerily similar to my ex-girlfriend's "must-have" list on her online dating profile. 

[Peter K-G]

Pathetic,

Don had humor, you rest did not...

Unless you have something useful please go * uc* your self.

Low enough for you?......

[Stephen Fine]

3 hours ago, Spelman said:

Green, purple, or blue.

Seriously, there are a whole lot of other colors out there besides the relatively thin slice of the spectrum that is currently used.

PS--I know there are a lot of market/cultural issues that prevent this from happening but I'd love to see more variety, personally.

I just saw a Tiny Desk Concert with a gentleman playing a greenish-blue violin that I thought was a lovely color.  The band had a funny name: beabadoobee

[David Burgess]

5 hours ago, Peter K-G said:

Unless you have something useful please go * uc* your self.

After you, sir.

[Marty Kasprzyk]

8 hours ago, Don Noon said:

• Adjustable red/orange/amber color
• Perfect transparency
• Resistant to hand/chin sweat
• Moderate to thick viscosity for finger painting
• Very long working time (I like to mess with it), but...
• Dries overnight in the UV cabinet
• Lasts forever in the jar without skinning or gelling
• Easy to make, or cheap to buy
• Vacuums the house and takes out the garbage

I use a real low viscosity oil finish so that the coatings are only a very thin coating which are applied with a lightly wetted cloth.  Since only a thin layer is applied there isn't any available to penetrate deep into the wood. It takes about 10 to 12 coatings to seal the pores and achieve a smooth highly reflective surface.  But since each coating are so thin they dry quickly and it only takes about a week to do without needing direct sunlight or UV lights.

[David Rosales]

7 hours ago, Spelman said:

Green, purple, or blue.

 

or black!

 

[Peter K-G]

21 hours ago, David Burgess said:

After you, sir.

Yeah, well I did was waiting for it. Somewhat surprised you responded first,  loosing some of your overtake on this forum?

Why don't you just tell everyone here, I'm not interesting in violin making, done it did it, won it , got it, so I'm leaving?....

Some do still about, making violins and varnish!

 

[Peter K-G]

To OP of mine.
I think I have a good understanding by now, but what I don't want to experience is totally be shot down by social media by a maker using my varnish. I test my stuff in every possible way I can think of it to fail.

Last one is an axe varnished too fast, too many layers, in too direct sun light, too much every 4 hours and couple of summer rain hours, ...It did fail with some good looking old look crackle finnish. But I still use the axe for fire wood stuff.

 

[David Burgess]

42 minutes ago, Peter K-G said:

Why don't you just tell everyone here, I'm not interesting in violin making, done it did it, won it , got it, so I'm leaving?....

Because it would be inaccurate and untruthful.

[David Rosales]

So, are most of the pros using oil-based varnish instead of spirit-based varnish at this point? Is spirit-based varnish considered more of a beginner product?

 

Brian Derber in his book recommends varnishing the first 3 instruments, if I remember correctly, with a basic spirit-based varnish and aniline dyes, and I suspect that's a practice followed at the Chicago School where he taught?

[Peter K-G]

3 minutes ago, David Burgess said:

Because it would be inaccurate and untruthful.

That was unexpected and full of respect from my side, giving it some thought and please forgive me if I have totally misjudged you?

[Peter K-G]

Back to OP, anyone interesting in my dark (Roger Hargrave style, no pigments, to my best of knowledge), varnish?
 

If so it is called Spruce Hill varnish and it it is totally free except shipping for a period of time.

[Davide Sora]

10 hours ago, David Rosales said:

So, are most of the pros using oil-based varnish instead of spirit-based varnish at this point? Is spirit-based varnish considered more of a beginner product?

Not me, even if one of the main constituents of my varnish is oxidized oil, so I don't know how to define it exactly, from an application point of view it is undoubtedly an alcohol varnish. Not that I want to say that alcohol varnishes are better than the oil ones, both are just varnishes, just that I can get better and more consistent results, probably because it's the one I'm more used to and with which I've accumulated more experience. But if I had to give a piece of advice to a beginner, I'd tell him to buy ready-made oil varnish, it's easier.

As a side note, here in Cremona a lot of professionals still use alcohol varnishes, and this drastically lowers the percentage of pros who use oil ones, for better or for worse.