Violin Forum/Message Board

[AlexT]

Im am un-experienced in violin luthierie, but I have made several guitars in the past. I recently decided to learn violin, and I decided what better instrument to lean on than my great grandfathers violin. It is a 1930's student model so it nothing really special. I was on another forum searching for how to remove some of the grime (not the patina) from the back. I was told to first try warm water, this didnt work. Then I was told to try a touch of denatured spirits (and you already know what happened). I uses a small ammount at first, with no affect, tried adding a little more, nothing happened, the grime was still there. So the process continued and I now have an ugly shiny spot in the middle of the aged varnish. I obviously dont blame the people who gave me the advice, but myself due to my lack of skill in this area. Any advice on how to at least improve my situation (I undersand that it is most likely not 100% repairable) would be hugely appreciated.

[rs]

I would ignore the shiny spot for now and do the following.

First, clean your instrument the way you would if the shiny spot was not there. The best cleaning agent I have found is xylene. (Most paint stores sell it.) The xylene should be tested on a small spot just to be on the safe side. Xylene is good as it dissolves bow rosin and dirt grime, but neither oil varnish nor spirit varnish. I would never use water or alcohol to clean an instrument UNLESS I knew for certain that the varnish was only oil based. I then MIGHT use a little alcohol as it is quicker.

Once the whole instrument is cleaned, now address the spot. If it is simply shinier than the other parts of the instrument, that is, the color is the same only the shean is different, then I would do the following. I keep a selection of different grit micromesh pads, from 1200 or so to 12000 grit at my workbench. I would pick simply try out different ones until I found the one that when rubbed on the shiny spot would reduce the shine to the same "dullness" as the rest of the varnish. I then would blend it out until it was basically invisible.

If the color itself is actually different, then that has to be addressed. The way I would do it, not seeing the instrument naturally, is to first use the above pads tp blend the color difference, that is, where there is no stark color change or boundaries that would make a blotchy appearance. Sometimes, that alone does the trick. If it does I would leave it as matching color well is very tricky on spirit varnished instruments. If it still is noticeable, then first I would try a little water color on the spot to see if the match was good. If the color match was good, I then would french polish the spot and leave it. If the water color was not a good match, I would use a DAMP paper towel and wash off the watercolor. (This is why watercolor is chosen). If the reason the watercolor did not look good was because of color difference, I would try a different color. If the reason the watercolor did not look good was because of the lack of transparency, I would then as a last resort, use a little colored spirit varnsh. As this can sometimes look worse than the problem it is correcting, the spot would have to be pretty obvious for me to want to try varnish. If colored spirit varnish is still chosen, a common mistake to avoid is blending the color. Sometimes the colored varnish is added to the spot and blended OVER the undamaged spot. When repair is done in this fashion, a dark ring appears in the final work that is hard to rub out correctly. The better way, is to stop the color just before the the spot ends and the original color begins. When rubbed out, this usually looks better.

Not seeing the instrument, I seriously doubt enough damage to the COLOR was done to warrant color matching at all, but that is just me.

Hope this helps.
_________________
Randall Shenefelt

[FiddleDoug]

Water is always the first solvent to try for cleaning. Perhaps a bit of slightly warm water. Xylene would be for tougher grime. Xylene is toxic, and should be used outside, with nitrile gloves. Micromesh pads with water will even out the gloss finish. Don't use alcohol.
_________________
Doug Wall

www.wallindependent.com

[Jack H.]

in my shop I use a mixture of alcohol, turpentine water and mineral oil shake well, test before using. do not use too much alcohol as it can remove the varnish. most shops use something like this as a cleaner.
I have also been known to use baby wipes or just soapy water as a first cleaning. Save the cancer causing xylene for real bad stuff!


Jack Havivi
Havivi Violins
Israel