A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 12/28/2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Ground, Varnish, and Glaze

The set of photos below were taken after two coats of ground and two coats of dark amber violin varnish had been applied to the "Saint".

Below is a piece of poplar shaped to act as a cover for the neck of the violin while glaze and/or varnish is being applied.

I show this because it contrasts with the light spot on the second photograph. This neck cover shows the resultant darkening from up to 10 coats of dark amber violin varnish versus then underside which received no varnish.


Last week Ben hand rubbed two coats of a ground compound on to the violin. This compound was composed of dark amber violin varnish mixed with ground white pumice stone. Tom Robson of Violin Varnish, Ltd. Trumansburg, New York made the dark amber violin varnish that was used as the base. The varnish is made from powdered Baltic dark amber and linseed oil with a turpentine solvent. Baltic fossil amber is a resin from coniferous trees that grew and were buried under the Baltic sea floor over 24-40 million years ago. It is the hardest of resins and being nearly inert must be fused at high heat to make it soluble in linseed oil. It lends itself to a high polish and is an extremely protective violin finish.

The process of rubbing in the ground takes approximately 5-6 hours per coat. The pumice embeds in the wood pores sealing the wood and causing increased surface tension. This limits the amount of varnish that the wood can absorb. It is thought that the more varnish that is absorbed the greater the dampening of the tone of the instrument.

The prior Wednesday, Ben temporarily fitted the instrument so that I could try it out and experience its sound. The violin had a great deal of power and resonance and was uniform across all strings and all positions. These were specific qualities I had noticed in the other violins of Ben I had played and were qualities I had requested. At that point Ben had applied only the two coats of ground.

As of this morning he had finished spreading and drying two additional coats of dark amber varnish with no color pigment added.


Below Ben has removed the nut and is removing the finger board prior doing some finish work under the fingerboard and starting the color glazing

Here with the fingerboard removed you can see some build up of the pumice from the application of the ground done after the finder board was in place. It has been deduced from the condition of the finish under the fingerboards of many old Cremonese instruments that the fingerboard was probably in place prior to the finishing of the instruments. Ben has chosen to use that approach on the "Saint".

Below the thickness of the neck is seen with the fingerboard removed.

Below Ben has scraped some of the excess pumice from under the fingerboard.

Ben holds the nut and fingerboard he has removed.

Ben is using his finger tip to dab a small amount of varnish on to spots that were too thin.

Here Ben is demonstrating use of a brush technique to apply larger amounts of varnish

The neck cover is being glued in place prior to starting the glazing.

Here Ben has donned a glove to apply the glaze using his fingers. The glaze is a mix of black and rose madder pigments added to the dark amber varnish.

The glaze coats are applied and then allowed to dry 1-2 days prior to application of the next coat. Depending on the color desired 2 or many more coats may be applied. Below Ben holds up the "Saint" with the first glaze coat applied to the lower treble bout to show the color contrast between glazed and unglazed sides.