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Aged Wood Colors + Balsam Ground System

Violin Varnish Ltd.

Aged Wood Colors + Balsam Ground System

A Working Method

This method combines the Aged Wood Color and Balsam Ground to make a deeply reflective gold/brown base for varnishing. Proportions of color and wood preparations should be varied according to the color of the wood.

Apply a coat of alcohol to the spruce.

Beginning with the spruce, apply Wood Preparation #1 to the entire instrument.

Apply Red Brown and/or Grey Green to entire instrument. Repeat as desired. This phase promotes contrast in the wood colors.

Apply Wood Preparation #1 to the entire instrument. Repeat as desired.

Mix Wood Preparation #2 + Aged Wood Color: Gold + Aged Wood Color Green/Gray. [I use mostly Gold + a bit of Gray/Green 1:1 with Wood Prep. #2] Solve this mixture in an equal amount of alcohol. Apply thin coats of the mixture to the entire instrument as you would spirit varnish. Work carefully but it is not as critical a process as spirit varnishing so minor overlapping is not an issue. Allow surface to dry between applications. Repeat as desired.

Apply Wood Preparation #2 to the entire instrument. Repeat as desired.

Allow the surface to dry. [I usually let the alcohol soluble materials dry overnight…in or out of the light box.] When the color is correct and dry, the surface should be cleaned of any material which stands above the level of the grain. This material will show as shiny areas. Use cheesecloth just dampened with alcohol. When finished the instrument surface will look uniform and appear to be just wood, not coated wood.

Mix Wood Preparation #3 + Aged Wood Color Gold. Solve this mixture in an equal amount of turpentine. Apply thin coats of the mixture to the entire instrument as you would spirit varnish. Work carefully but it is not as critical a process as spirit varnishing. Repeat as desired. [Note: These two procedures will create a gold brown color in the wood which retains the natural contrasts of the wood. That is it will look like wood, not colored wood. With some woods there will be an unfamiliar bright yellow green cast to the wood. This will quickly disappear as the material is absorbed and dries.]

Apply Wood Preparation #3 to the entire instrument.Repeat as desired.

Mix Wood Preparation #4 + Aged Wood Color Gold. [I use about the same proportions as previous.] Solve this material in an equal amount of turpentine. Apply a thin coat of the mixture to the entire instrument as you would spirit varnish. Work carefully but it is not as critical a process as spirit varnishing. [I do this once.]

Apply Wood Preparation #4 to the entire instrument. Repeat as desired.

Allow the surface to dry. . [I usually let the turpentine soluble materials dry overnight…in or out of the light box, but in the light box is better.] When dry, the surface should be cleaned of any material which stands above the level of the grain. This material will show as shiny areas. Use cheesecloth just dampened with turpentine. When finished the instrument surface will look uniform and appear to be just wood, not coated wood.

Apply a very thin coat of Balsam Ground Varnish. [Thin the Balsam Ground Varnish 2 parts Turpentine to 1 part Balsam Ground Varnish.] Allow to dry

The instrument is now sealed and ready for varnishing.

 

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Balsam Ground Application

 

Violin Varnish Ltd.
Balsam Ground Application

Using the Balsam Ground System

A series of applications infuses the wood with the products of aging. The successive applications combine with the wood and catalyze one another. This hardens and stabilizes the wood. The final coating is Balsam Ground Varnish which also acts to harden the previous applications. Since the Balsam Ground Varnish is a linseed oil varnish it also adds protection and polishability.

First

 

Before applying the First Wood Preparation, throughly wet the surface with alcohol. (This is more important with the spruce than the maple.)
Brush on the First Solution and allow it to absorb. Repeat this process one or more times until the color develops. (For less contrast in the wood’s coloring apply alcohol alternating with the First Solution).

Second

 

Put a container of the Second Wood Preparation in a dish of hot water to reduce viscosity. Apply Second Wood Preparation to the entire instrument. Allow this coating to sit on the instrument about one hour. Then, brush the surface with alcohol and, using a cloth dampened in alcohol, rub off and rub in the Second Wood Preparation. Repeat this process at least once more. Allow the surface to dry, then buff with a soft cloth.

Third

 

Put a container of Third Wood Proparation in a dish of hot water to reduce the viscosity. Apply the Third Wood Preparation to the entire instrument. Allow this coating to sit on the wood about one hour. Then brush the surface with turpentineand, using a soft cloth dampened with turpentine, rub off (and rub in) the Third Wood Preparation Repeat this process once more. Allow the surface to dry, then buff with a soft cloth.

Fourth

Apply Fourth Wood Preparation to entire instrument. Allow this coating to sit on the surface about one hour. Then brush the surface with turpentine and, using a cloth dampened with turpentine, rub off (and rub in) the Fourth Wood Preparation

Balsam Ground Varnish

 

Thin Balsam Ground Varnish with turpentine. (2 parts turpentine to 1 part varnish). Brush on to entire instrument. Allow varnish to absorb about 10 minutes. Brush enire instrument a second time. Allow to dry. Buff.

Basic Instructions

 

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Balsam Ground

 

Violin Varnish Ltd.
Balsam Ground


The Balsam Ground System

Protects
the raw surface by changing the way the wood reacts with ambient moisture. It provides surface protection with a polishable sheen which has little or no film thickness.

Enhances
the deep natural translucence of the polished wood providing a radiance and clarity of detail which can be seen at any angle. The illuminated subsurface remains clearly observable under the varnish.

Deepens
the color of the wood, rather than coloring the wood fiber. The Balsam Ground brings out the golden tones of the wood and preserves the natural contrasts of the wood’s own color.

Seals
the instrument for varnishing, without filling the pores or chemically altering or degrading the wood structure.

Balsam Ground Solutions and Balsam Ground Varnish
are made from the oleoresins which naturally occur in Pine, Spruce, and Larch trees and are produced in large quantites to protect the tree when it is wounded. As the tree dies and is cut and dried for use, the aging process creates both physical and chemical changes in the wood. If the products of aging are separated from the process of aging they can be used to enhance the structure and appearance of tonewoods in a manner similar to aging but intensified to give the properties desirable in a good varnish ground. A series of applications of balsam extracts infuses the wood with these products of aging. The successive applications combine with the wood and catalyze one another. This hardens and stabalizes the wood. The final application is Balsam Ground Varnish which also acts to harden the previously applied oleoresin solutions. Since the Balsam Ground Varnish is a coodked linseed oil varnish, it also adds protection and polishability.

Balsam Ground Color Range

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Balsam Ground Application

 

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Aged Wood Colors: Wood Color under the Varnish

Aged Wood Colors

Wood Color under the Varnish

Color the wood with control

For aesthetic and commercial reasons it is often necessary to give a dark look to the wood in order to support the varnish color of an antique or antiqued instrument.

These colors must be accurate but not over stated. They must be fixed in the wood without obscuring the grain or reflectivity. They must be reasonably light fast, but not completely so that the natural long term color changes can occur in the wood under the varnish.

Wood color is effected by UV and visible light [particularly the blue and purple spectrum], creating a gold/brown coloration. Therefore: The wood changes color under the varnish as the instrument ages. The current method of using “wet chemistry” [application of potassium nitrite, sodium nitrite, ammonia, nitric acid as a result of ozone exposure] on the wood surface to reproduce these colors has certain drawbacks:

The color fades.
There is a definite lack of control in creating the color.
It appears that these treatments block some of the long term color changes that are created by visible light as it passes through the varnish.
 

The method.

Introduce colors into the wood which would occur naturally as the result of UV and visible light exposure, but in concentrations which give the look of aged wood to the new surface.

The colors used are complex vegetable extracts which mimic or are the same as the colorants produced in the wood by age and exposure to light. All colors are alcohol tinctures but they are also moderately turpentine soluble.

The colors are introduced into the wood using a dye method common to the traditional treatment of cotton cloth known as “mordant-color-mordant”. Rather than chemical transformation of the color body by exposure to metallic compounds the mordant [a bark extract] in this method fixes the color in the wood directly. [The ancient meaning of the word mordant is “to bite”.] Since the tinctures are alcohol and turpentine soluble they can be used in conjunction with the components of the Balsam Ground System or they can be applied directly to the wood.

The result:

Wood color under the varnish is chosen and controled by the maker.

 

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Color for the Violin

 

Violin Varnish Ltd.

Color for the Violin


Color Varnishes

 

Creating a deeply colored varnish which has a minimum of film thickness while being transparent, translucent, and lightfast is the benchmark of the classic violin varnish. The source of these colors has traditionally been an extract from Madder Root.

Alizarin is the chemical equivalent of the coloring agent in Madder root. This color extract, known as a lake, is made as an Artist’s color by creating a colored particle which is then mixed in (floated) in the violin varnish to create a colored layer. As with any particle (lake or pigment) this process reduces the transparency of the varnish.

By recreating an ancient method the Alizarin Color Concentrate Varnishes and the Baltic Amber Color Varnishes are made by attaching the Alizarin Lake to the linseed oil molecule in the process of making the varnish. At no point in the making of the color or the varnish is there a particle present. The color has the deep translucence of the linseed oil and the lightfast qualities of an alizarin lake.

 

Alizarin Color Concentrates

 

The hues of Alizarin, the coloring agent in Madder root, are the traditional range of colors for violin varnish. Alizarin Color Concentrates are made in Alizarin Orange, Alizarin Scarlet and Alizarin Purple. The ancient method of attaching the color directly to the oil produces a varnish which translates a maximum of coloring power to a minimum of varnish film thickness. The clarity, brilliance and lightfast qualities of these concentrates are unsurpassed. The colors are fully formed Dark Rosin Varnishes and are available as long oil varnishes. The colors may be used on their own or mixed, or mixed with other varnishes.

 

Baltic Amber Color Varnishes

 

When the procedure of attaching the alizarin colors to the linseed oil (see Alizarin Color Concentrate) and using the colored linseed oil with Baltic Amber creates a varnish which has a complexity of color and clarity which makes a beautiful primary varnish or a color to be added to or layered on other varnishes. The Baltic Amber Color Varnishes are Orange, Red Brown and Golden Brown. They are long oil varnishes.

 

Dyed Copal Varnish

 

The hard Copal used to make Copal Violin Varnish shows a dual solubility for turpentine and alcohol at one point in the cooking process. At this point a metal complex aniline dye is added. These dyes are normally alcohol soluble. They provide stable and deep colors which are light fast. These Varnishes can be used on their own or added to the other varnishes as coloring agents. Dyed Copal Varnishes are all short oil varnishes.

 

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More about Turpentine

 

Violin Varnish Ltd.

More about Turpentine

 

Steam Distilling Turpentine

Natural turpentine is obtained from tapping or scraping the wounds on a variety of coniferous trees. The crude turpentine (scrape) is about 20% essential oils, 60% solids, and 20% water and waste material.

While the range of products known as turpentine includes balsam oil, Stroudsbourg and Venetian turpentine, the rosin oils, and oil of turpentine, which have specific but limited applications in the making of varnish, by far the most important is pure gum spirits. Separating the essential oil and solid content of crude turpentine makes pure gum spirits. The crude gum is heated, refined, and separated by distillation into gum spirits and rosin. The standards for the manufacture of pure gum spirits dates, in the US, to colonial times when the colonies were a prime source for “naval stores”. These same standards remain in effect today.

In the manufacture of varnish pure gum spirits has a variety of roles. It is a solvent, a flowing agent, and a drier.

As a solvent in linseed oil varnish turpentine is unique. Turpentine cannot be considered a solvent in the same way that alcohol dissolves shellac or water dissolves salt. These are solutions where a specific quantity of solid combines with the solvent to form a diluted copy of itself. Evaporate the solvent and the solid is left unaltered. Linseed oil is highly solvent in turpentine at room temperature. Once combined however, the turpentine and linseed oil cannot be separated by distillation into the original components. Turpentine and linseed oil are mutually soluble. Some resins are directly soluble in turpentine. Some resins require processing to make them soluble. Natural varnish resins are compounds. A mixture of turpentine and resin will contain dissolved and undissolved elements suspended in the mixture. Resin solutions are colloidal in nature and once established will not break down into their original components. Natural varnish resins and turpentine are mutually soluble. In the varnish making process turpentine is added to the resin and oil to promote the mutual solubility of the three elements.

As a flowing agent turpentine is superior to other solvents. If a linseed oil varnish is made in the same way, except mineral spirits is used instead of turpentine, and samples of each are brushed on the same surface, the brush marks will flow out of the turpentine varnish first and most completely. As the varnish film cures mineral spirits will evaporate completely. Turpentine never completely evaporates. A small percentage remains in the varnish as an elastic resinous substance.

Turpentine acts as a drier in linseed oil varnish. When pure turpentine is exposed to the atmosphere at room temperature it begins to thicken and gain molecular weight. It absorbs oxygen from the air faster and more efficiently than linseed oil. In varnish it passes oxygen from the air to the oleo-resinous compound.


Ancient method for distilling the essential oils from pine resin

 

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Alizarin Color Concentrates

 

Violin Varnish Ltd.

Alizarin Color Concentrates


 

The hues of Alizarin, the coloring agent in Madder root, are the traditional range of colors for violin varnish. Alizarin Color Concentrates are made in Alizarin Orange, Alizarin Scarlet and Alizarin Purple. The ancient method of attaching the color directly to the oil produces a varnish which translates a maximum of coloring power to a minimum of varnish film thickness. The clarity, brilliance and lightfast qualities of these concentrates are unsurpassed. The colors are fully formed Dark Rosin Varnishes and are available as long oil varnishes. The colors may be used on their own or mixed, or mixed with other varnishes.

Top: Alizarin Orange Color Concentrate
Center: Alizarin Purple Color Concentrate
Bottom: Alizarin Scarlet Color Concentrate
 All concentrates are Dark Rosin Violin Varnishes

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More about Linseed Oil

Violin Varnish Ltd.

More about Linseed Oil

Linseed Oil

Flax plant

Linseed oil is extracted from the seeds of the flax plant by exposing them to steam and passing them through a crusher. The oil is filtered to remove any plant waste from the crush and is known as “raw linseed oil”. The “boiled linseed oil” of common use is this raw oil combined with a metallic salt as a drier. Usually this drier is cobalt octoate.

Flax seed

Raw linseed oil can be further treated to take advantage of its natural drying properties and prepare it for varnish making. The oil can be washed with water to improve clarity. The “foots” which are organic and inorganic phosphates are removed by heat or the addition of a mild acid or alkali solution to “break” the oil. This produces very clear oil with minimal tendency to react with ambient humidity. The oil can now be used for varnish.

Linseed Oil

Linseed Oil is a drying oil, that is, it will convert under the proper conditions from a liquid to a solid. In its raw and processed forms the oil is soluble in mineral spirits, turpentine and similar solvents. As a solid it is a very insoluble substance. It is impervious to water, resists ordinary solvents, mild acids, and mild alkalis. The polymerization of the oil is the process of curing which moves the oil from a liquid to a solid phase.

When linseed oil is exposed to heat and or atmospheric oxygen a thickening occurs and it eventually becomes a solid, rubbery mass. If the exposure is to thin layers the result is a clear hard solid. The process of oxidization and subsequent polymerization forms aggregates of higher molecular weight. The final product is a solid, homogenous lattice-work of three dimensional molecules of exceptional stability.

Curing Linseed Oil

When linseed oil is exposed to the proper conditions of heat and available oxygen it begins to absorb oxygen at a rate that builds to a peak and then rapidly diminishes. The early rapid absorption of oxygen is known as the period of induction.

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More about Resin

Violin Varnish Ltd.

More about Resin

Natural Varnish Resin

Natural varnish resins are secreted by a variety of trees and plants. The resins most used with linseed oil to make violin varnish are Amber, Copal, and Rosin. Each of these begins as a sticky substance exuded by the tree through its bark and intended, by the tree, to repair wounds to its surface. Rosin is collected from slashes, cut in living trees, grown for this purpose. Copal is collected from living trees and from deposits of resin at the base of the tree. Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient forests, preserved underground or under water for 25 to 40 million years. The use of these resins goes back in history to the Egyptians. Though information about making varnish may vary, the combining of oil and resin is dictated by the materials which have not changed since humans started cooking them.

Raw Baltic Amber

Fossil amber is found primarily in the area surrounding the Baltic Sea. It is the hardest, most transparent of the varnish resins. It is also the most chemically inert. It is not soluble in any common solvent. Amber must be fused at high heat to make it soluble in linseed oil. Violin varnish made from Amber will take a high polish and provide a very protective surface.

Raw Copal Resin

Copal resins are collected in a number of regions of Africa and Southeast Asia. They are known as “semi-recent” and are soft to semi-hard resins. There are a large variety of copal resins available. They vary widely in color, hardness, and solubility type. Varnishes made from these resins share a distinct wheat straw color.

 

Crude Gum Harvest         Raw Rosin

Rosin is the most common resin varnish for violins. In its raw form, crude gum or “scrape”, pine rosin is a combination of essential oils, resin solids, water, and inert materials. Rosin is separated from the essential oil (turpentine or pure gum spirits) by distillation. The rosin produced is a soft resin, which can be readily combined with linseed oil for making varnish. Rosin can be manipulated in the cooking of varnish to produce violin varnishes that vary from nearly colorless to a deep red-brown.

Each of these resins, properly prepared, will make violin varnish which has excellent transparency, brushing, and polishing characteristics. Each resin must be prepared for varnish making according to the physical and chemical properties of the resin and the characteristics of the varnish being made.