Violin Varnish restoration

DISCLAIMER: This article is an atypical violin varnish restoration – well beyond the usual approaches. (See Violin Varnish Repair and Touch-Ups for what is more usual).

This is a violin that came my way relatively recently, it had been revarnished so heavily with hardware store varnish that the grains of the timbers were no longer visible. However on inspection of the inside of the instrument, it looked to both be a well made violin as well as with a tightly grained spruce top and lightly flamed sides and back, thus a good candidate for restoration and investment of time.

Some test removal using various solvents and finally sandpaper (under the chin rest where it would not be visible) I discovered that the varnish was all but impervious to the human touch and that sanding would need to be on an industrial scale to remove the varnish. However sanding would likely be tricky because of the hardness of the varnish compared to the softness of the spruce on the top. 

It was at this stage I decided to look at using a chemical process (paint stripper – opting for the most gentle of them). 

The stripping involved some testing (under the fingerboard)  before the removal from the top bottom and sides. This was both a chemical and physical process, using a plastic scrappers or various shapes through several coats of stripper. unfortunately the stripper removes both the hardware varnish as well as the traditional varnish.

So once it was back to bare wood, on went the ground coat and then the layers of varnish (I used shellac with some traditional pigments for light colouring) and some french polishing and cutting back as I went. The results visually were lovely, but the most outstanding of all was the change in the sound. It was literally like a heavy blanket was removed and the violin could speak again, and speak she does. The sound is comparable to  an advanced student instrument  (in the $>2k range ) it both projects wonderfully as well as having that rich tone you get from older instruments.  Heres a couple of notes from it , strung up with Violino strings from Pirastro, to take take the edge off its brightness and show off its meaty character

Some of my violin repair services are below