Violin Varnish Ltd.
Balsam Ground

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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.

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Balsam Ground Color Range

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Balsam Ground Application

 

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Pigmented Varnishes

A work in progress.

Bone Black

Italian Brown Earth

Cohineal Lake

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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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Violin Varnish Ltd.

More about Turpentine

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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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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

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

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.