Who sprays oil varnish?

[fscotte]

I'm about to try using my Badger 350 airbrush and cheap Joha varnish.

[LCF]

I sprayed polyurethane once in a regular spraygun. Thinned it first, enough to make it go on nicely but I think a lot was wasted in the vapour. It's an outdoors job, or spray booth/extractor if you have one. Airbrush, don't know! 

 

It was a garden bench btw, fairly complex but not as complex as a violin. Runs might be a problem.

[Will Turner]

First I’ve heard of it.   Interesting idea, what does it look like compared to the other methods?   Be sure to photograph the results.

[HoGo]

I did that once and regretted. But thre are few folks who do spray oil varnish succesfully (especially among mandolin makers).

I remember the mess of the sticky overspray all over the place (filters and such would get clogged quite fast) and cleanup of airbrush disassembled to tiny parts with all the solvents of world to prevent parts sticking together.

I later found that the more succesful sprayers than me use acetone to thin oil varnish for spraying so you won't risk runs and sags and the varnish stays where sprayed. I can also add that applying colored varnish with airbrush in the tight spaces of violin like in turns of scroll or just behind the corner in the upper c bout curve is not simple.

[LCF]

I had a similar experience in that I sprayed the stuff outdoors but the yard and house had a whiff of turpentine and varnish to them for days. And I had to wash out the gun several times,  between coats. It was a situation where once started I should have stopped.

You will probably end up brushing out runs.

[fscotte]

I've sprayed a couple coats yesterday and will do 2 more today.  Surprising that my little airbrush is laying it on at 35 psi, fully open. I added only a drop of mineral spirits, but likely I don't even need that.

 

Joha is pretty crappy as far as resin amount, so it's not real thick to begin with. 

[fscotte]

Four coats of Joha golden yellow.  Absolutely flawless.  I have no reason to brush from now on.  Didn't even use any thinner.

 

[Will Turner]

2 hours ago, fscotte said:

Absolutely flawless.

 

No need for a French Polish for the glossy finish look.  I am mixed on the result, I like it and also wonder if it is too perfect.   I like a corduroy texture to the spruce, but the smooth surface is also interesting.

[LCF]

I suspect that there a lot of varnishes that wouldn't work like that. The Joha must have some gel-like properties that make it stick in place. How are the corners, and inside the turns of the scroll?

[fscotte]

2 hours ago, Will Turner said:

No need for a French Polish for the glossy finish look.  I am mixed on the result, I like it and also wonder if it is too perfect.   I like a corduroy texture to the spruce, but the smooth surface is also interesting.

I think perhaps we are used to seeing a "flawed" varnish on violins.  I too like this so far, and note this isn't even built up enough to cover over the wood imperfections. Normally I would wet sand to a glass finish with lacquer.  With this I will see.  But I'm wondering if I should airbrush the red-brown to mimic the classic look.  I dunno yet. I'm just stoked I can get even color.

 

This is the back with 2 layers.

 

 

[fscotte]

1 hour ago, LCF said:

I suspect that there a lot of varnishes that wouldn't work like that. The Joha must have some gel-like properties that make it stick in place. How are the corners, and inside the turns of the scroll?

I only have 2 layers on the scroll but I had to turn the volume down slightly because of the uneven surface and it would collect more in certain places.  I've never used any other varnish so I'm certain there are differences and likely challenges with spraying.  Joha doesn't seem to have a lot of color in each coat.

I may just do the scroll with a brush since it suffices and doesn't need such even coats.  We will see, either way I have a lot of experience with an airbrush, over 40 years.  My badger 350 is at least 35 years old.

[Will Turner]

1 hour ago, fscotte said:

This is the back with 2 layers.

Beautiful!  I do not have experience with an airbrush, so I suspect that if I tried it, would be less successful.    Badger 350, wonder if I can find one and practice on scrap.     No thinner?  Just straight Joha oil varnish?

 

[fscotte]

5 hours ago, Will Turner said:

Beautiful!  I do not have experience with an airbrush, so I suspect that if I tried it, would be less successful.    Badger 350, wonder if I can find one and practice on scrap.     No thinner?  Just straight Joha oil varnish?

 

There are better airbrushes, and it wouldnt take long to be proficient.  They are no different than any common HV sprayer, just less volume.   I just like the badger because its what I have and its small and lightweight.  You only want enough air pressure to pull whatever it is your spraying, and a consistent psi.  So I use a compact construction air compressor which has an accurate psi gauge.  I was able to get this varnish to spray at 25 psi.  This is with a medium flow tip.  They come in 3 sizes.

Yes, this is Joha oil varnish from International Violin.  I added a drop or two of mineral spirits to about .5 ounces of varnish for the first layer. But it didnt even need that, so I just used straight without any thinner.  Each layer is at most .5 ounces.  My spray jars hold .75 ounces.

[fscotte]

Couple more pics to show the flawless varnish spray.  No buffing, no sanding.  Not sure I will need too.  Really impressed with Joha.  The back now has 4 layers as well.  The sides have 2.

[Don Noon]

What about spray getting thru the F holes to the inside of the back?  Masking the F's would be a pain.

I tried spraying a few times; I didn't like it for the reasons already mentioned.  I like fingerpainting, and my preference is not a perfectly flawless/uniform look.

[fscotte]

14 minutes ago, Don Noon said:

What about spray getting thru the F holes to the inside of the back?  Masking the F's would be a pain.

I tried spraying a few times; I didn't like it for the reasons already mentioned.  I like fingerpainting, and my preference is not a perfectly flawless/uniform look.

You can fill it with whatever you like, I just use paper towels cut into small pieces.  Inserted easily, removed easily.  It also has the added benefit of keeping any wood dust and shavings from escaping onto your pristine finish.

Yeah I'm not sure about the flawless look either.  It's almost too glassy - but at the same time, since no one else is spraying, perhaps its a unique look.  But this is 100 times easier than brushing for me.  

[HoGo]

Now you can compete with chinese factories that have been doing it for long time.

It's much much harder to get even color with dark varnish in the turns of scroll and under overhang which is often visible on chinese production.

You can block f holes with a ballon blown through f hole and insert a visitcard between ballon and top if necessary. Simple and clean.

[Victor Roman]

On 5/20/2025 at 2:22 AM, LCF said:

I sprayed polyurethane once in a regular spraygun. Thinned it first, enough to make it go on nicely but I think a lot was wasted in the vapour. It's an outdoors job, or spray booth/extractor if you have one. Airbrush, don't know! 

 

It was a garden bench btw, fairly complex but not as complex as a violin. Runs might be a problem.

I sprayed on many cars in my youth as my father moonlighted as a panel beater. To spray ANYTHING successfully you need a cheap low pressure spray gun and a Ford cup. Dilute your paint to the specs for the Ford cup. Spray at MAX (!!!) 2Bar or aprox 30psi. Spray negligently a VERY light coat and wait for it to be almost dry ( 30 mins...) Spray a 2nd heavier coat, let almost dry and if needed, a third. On the gun set pressure to 2 bar ( 30psi ) and open the fan until it just starting to narrow in the middle. This is all and if you hit each of the above right you can spray anything including oil varnish. For oil varnish you might need to dilute with xylene and "almost dry" might take much longer. You don't want high pressure because the paint will bounce off the body and you want almost dry first coat to key the next coat to it. Also, the younger members here may not know that 60 years ago lots of car paints were... oil paints.

[joerobson]

Once upon a time...many moons ago...I worked with a maker who sprayed Amber Varnish on his double basses.

on we go,

Joe

[fscotte]

2 hours ago, HoGo said:

Now you can compete with chinese factories that have been doing it for long time.

It's much much harder to get even color with dark varnish in the turns of scroll and under overhang which is often visible on chinese production.

You can block f holes with a ballon blown through f hole and insert a visitcard between ballon and top if necessary. Simple and clean.

I'm not aware of any Chinese made violins with sprayed oil varnish, only lacquer.  

Do you know of a particular brand that sprays oil varnish? 

[fscotte]

First coat of red brown on the scroll area, only had two coats of yellow under it, so this makes only the third coat on the scroll. Not too shabby, and I may just finish up with a brush, but not really experiencing any runs and it seems to fill the scroll area OK.  The secret is to keep the violin moving as youre spraying and afterwards.

 

[JacksonMaberry]

1 hour ago, fscotte said:

I'm not aware of any Chinese made violins with sprayed oil varnish, only lacquer.  

Do you know of a particular brand that sprays oil varnish? 

There are a lot of them. Maybe most? Nowadays the better suppliers don't even use cashew lacquer 

[fscotte]

6 minutes ago, JacksonMaberry said:

There are a lot of them. Maybe most? Nowadays the better suppliers don't even use cashew lacquer 

I'd like to see the finish.  What I found is that they use a cashew varnish, which is partly synthetic.

 

Do you know any particular one with close up photos that uses an actual oil varnish? 

[JacksonMaberry]

3 minutes ago, fscotte said:

I'd like to see the finish.  Do you know of one with some close up photos? 

Eastman, Snow, Shen, Cao, and on and on. 

At first glance, your instrument looks very much like a factory produced piece simply because of how "perfect" the coating is. It is perfectly smooth and glossy, lacking any textural variety that most hand varnished instruments possess naturally before polishing. This isn't an objectively bad thing, it's just an observation. 

In my view anyway, all that matters is that the violin comes as close as possible to the "platonic ideal" violin that you build in your mind's eye. If this is what yours looks like, then you have succeeded. 

[fscotte]

1 hour ago, JacksonMaberry said:

Eastman, Snow, Shen, Cao, and on and on. 

 

Sorry for pressing the issue here and take don't take offense, but is there a specific model I can look at online and close up to see a sprayed oil varnish?  There's many sprayed violins, but with lacquer, or possibly some synthetic varnish, but thats not an ideal comparison.  I'm trying to use Joha oil varnish.

I'd like to see how their finishes compare, if indeed they are sprayed oil varnishes.  If I search for an Eastman sprayed oil varnish violin, I don't see anything specific.

 

Thanks for the comments.  It is very glassy, almost too glassy.  I like that I'm getting an even coat of color, but it may be too smooth.