Stripping and re-tanning?

[Nick Allen]

Yo!

So, I found a violin in my attic that I made years ago. I stripped it a while ago, and I was thinking about doing a new varnish job on it. 

Looking at it, it's not quite as tan as I would like, so I was thinking about re-tanning it before chemical treatment and ground. 

My thinking was, after I used Citrustrip, as seen here, I was going to wash it down with a potash solution, really scrub it clean. Then neutralize it after that with the appropriate acid. 

Also, I'm not ruling out a light scraping and some sanding here and there. Possibly re cutting some things, ect. 

My main question is, has anyone done this before? Would I be feasible to re-tan it? 

I'm aware that the wood may be impregnated with god-knows-what that I used years ago in my early attempts at ground, and so the reaction may have a harder if not impossible time happening on the wood surface. 

I just don't want to waste weeks of my time trying to find out. 

Thanks all!

[Evan Smith]

Yeah, I’ve done this a few times, if you start scraping on it and messing with the wood, it’s gonna really show, because after it’s been stripped and wet and cleaned and washed, the grain will be fairly fluffy, you start scraping on it. It’s gonna leave a scar everywhere you touch it..
it’s been a while, but I think I used to scrub it off with acetone after citrus strip, though I think they’ve changed the formula so it might not be the same as it was, used to be rather slimy to get off. I don’t remember if it was the older version or the newer version that was better

but if you wanna scrape on it when you get done, you’re gonna need to throw some more ground on it. Take it back off. You have to do something to make the wood look like it hasn’t been messed with. A light thin ceiling with something like damar, resin and a very, super dilute coat of transparent watercolor can give a really nice even darker color for the ground.

as you know, there are literally thousands of ways to do all of this stuff, and I could go on and on, and on, and on, and on about all the variables, but you have to be careful with the scraping and messing with the wood because it will show easily, and you’ll have to deal with that

some lie and hydrogen peroxide mixed together, and do a light coat scrub it with a soft brush after you scrape it and mess with it will bring it pretty much back to one color if you do it too much the major raise in the maple will actually all bleach out white and then the wood starts looking rather plain so you don’t wanna overdo that but, good luck, glad it’s not me.