Violin Forum/Message Board

[Dave Chandler]

Recent discussion on using the fingers to varnish prompts me to make some observations. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've battled dust particles in my varrnish and come up with my own little check list before varnishing, and have finally gotten a nearly dust-free finish (so much so that if you like high gloss, its a quite acceptable finish without rubbing it out with pumice). Here's my routine--

1. Set up a seperate varnishing area, with a small air filter. I simply made an area by draping overlapping sheets of plastic stapled to the floor joists above my workshop and in a corner about 5' square with a small table, a lamp, and my UV cabinet.

2. Run filter for a couple hours before varnishing, shut it down so there is no stiring of the air during the varnishing other than me moving about.

3. Using an air compressor nozzle blow out dust particles from inside the violin BEFORE taking it into the "booth". Otherwise when you turn the violin over to varnish the back you'll have dust spilling out into your work area.

4. Wear a clean set of clothes into the "booth", not that old shirt you scraped and sanded in.

5. Bring in fresh mineral spirits or turp for cleaning brushes, and also brush cleaner and conditioner.

6. Wipe down the instrument with a tack cloth. Bag the tack cloth in a plastic bag.

7. Use disposable glad brand type plastic containers with snap on lids, decant a small amount of varnish fresh from the jar. Cover as soon as you finish for future coats.

8. At the end of each application, I rinse the brush in mineral spirits or turp, then rinse in brush cleaner, then take the brush in the house and wash with soap and warm water. Dry with an old t-shirt scrap that's clean and dry, and been washed a million times, not paper towels which reintroduces lint to the brush. Then I seal the brush and the t-shirt scrap in a large baggie and put it back in my varnish area for next use.

9. If using tar/asphalt for coloring, I warm it, thin it a bit, and double, even triple filter it through coffee filters each time into a fresh clean jar.

This may not be the "school" solution, but I'm presuming most of us here on the forum haven't been to the violin-making school so we missed the semester on varnishing. If you know of anything that would improve this process, I hope you'll add to the checklist.
_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[Oded Kishony]

I use canning jars to store my varnish. When I get ready to varnish I remove the two part lid place a piece of silk screen over the mouth of the jar and replace only the ring portion of the lid, then I pour out the varnish into another canning jar that also has silk screen held in place by the ring of the canning jar. The varnish get filtered twice before I use it.

I also do my varnishing first thing so that the least amount of dust has been kicked up.

You've got some very good procedures.

Oded

[Janito]

Surely the extensive lists of dos and don'ts would take one well away from the environment in which Strad and his mates did their best stuff.

Some obsess about micrometer dimensions in a hope of replication, and yet forget to consider local working conditions.

[Oded Kishony]

Most of what's on the list could easily be done in the 17th and 18th Century.

[Janito]

Yes, but would it have made much difference.

Law of diminishing returns, see.

[Dave Chandler]

Janito:

After spending 200 or more hours on the construction, a few extra minutes preparing for varnishing is hardly "diminishing returns". A buyer looks at the finish long before he picks the violin up to check out the tone.
_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[Oded Kishony]

[Janito]

Of course these make sense in a 21st century environment, but it is always worth remembering that the life and times when the Masters operated were very different to those we take for granted now.

Standards of environmental pollution, personal hygiene (I doubt Strad use deodorant, and certainly not antipersirant) etc. would shock us now.

If the slight breeze blowing into Strad's varnishing studio was thick with dust and particulate crap, he may have taken a pragmatic approach towards obsessional brush and varnish cleanliness.

[Dave Chandler]

Janito,

We don't really know what his original finishes looked like -- after several hundred years of wiping and rubbing, any flaws in the finish are probably long gone.

But...I'd bet he strove for perfection in his finish like he did in all his construction. So I feel pretty certain that Tony took pains (perhaps even more than I) to keep dust and particles out of the varnish. Besides, he probably had his apprentice, Carlo, clean his brushes and strain his varnishes etc.

I submit again, that after several hundred hours putting a violin together, it is not obsessive to spend a little time preparing to varnish. Once you've got things set up, you're only talking about an additional few minutes before each application.

By the way, just to spice up the thread, I came across this photo in Michael Darnton's blog, and I thought it was really attractive corner work when you look at it from this angle. (Hope you don't mind Michael)


_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[ghammond]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the information about varnishing. I always have an extremely difficult time getting varnish to come out without dust particles in it. Filtering the varnish and setting up a dust free booth both sound like very logical steps towards receiving a nicely varnished product. In fact, I don't understand how anyone comes out with a nice varnishing job without taking these steps, to be truthful.

Yes, that's a pretty nice corner.

-G