Posted on June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Sealing with Shellac and Varnishing Rosewood Sealing with Shellac and Varnishing Rosewood by Neil Hebert Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #269, 1984 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 I have been using oil varnish on my instruments for years and have always found the finishing stages to be long and tedious. Still, I find the results of a good rubbed varnish job to be superior to lacquer; it gives the nicest “feel” to the guitar as well as showing the wood to the best advantage. One of the most ticklish problems in my experience is the seal coat of shellac, especially the first coat. The seal coat must be applied evenly in order to maintain consistent color on rosewood. The resins in the wood tend to wash out over the surface, which can result in irregular staining. I have tried three methods for applying this coat: Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 1, 2022May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Tru-Oil Finishes Questions: Tru-Oil Finishes by Jeff Jewitt Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 ■ Eric Nicholson of Northern Ireland asks: Woodworker magazine published an article on Stewart Adamson’s work regarding Tru-Oil finishes. His method involved a considerable amount of work with Micro-mesh during the process. I tried his method on my own guitars, both classical and steel string, with very satisfying results. Tru-Oil gives an attractive semigloss finish on all woods, but Adamson also goes on to say that for those that like a gloss finish, a gloss tung oil is now available only in the USA. Does anyone know of this gloss tung oil and where it is available in the States, or if it is now available in the UK? Jeff Jewett of Homestead Finishing in Cleveland Ohio responds: Tru-Oil is not pure tung oil. It’s a mixture of linseed oil, mineral spirits, and, according to the manufacturer, “modified oil.” It’s arguable that no tung oil is even used in this stuff. When finish chemists talk about “modified oil” as an ingredient they typically mean either chemical modification or heat modification. Chemically modifying a drying oil involves reacting it with chemicals and heat to form what are known as alkyds, which are used in varnish manufacture. Heat-treated oils basically jump start the drying/curing process. Pure heat-treated oils are used all the time in making finishes, but they rarely show up as “finishes.” The only pure heat-treated linseed oil I know of is Tried and True “Varnish Oil.” Pure heat-treated tung oil is sold in this country under the Sutherland Welles brand (www.sutherlandwelles.com). So I would be tempted to say that Tru-Oil is a mix of linseed oil and some sort of modified linseed or tung oil. Because it has a high oil content, it is not possible to produce a very glossy finish. High oil (also known as long oil) products tend to form microscopic wrinkles at the surface as they cure. There is one way to heat-modify pure tung oil so that it will form a glossy film. This involves careful and controlled heating of the oil to about 450°F. Very few people can cook tung oil properly nowadays, but you can buy it under the Sutherland Welles brand “Original Formula High Lustre.” I don’t know if they will ship overseas. It’s not an easy finish to do, and I’m not sure that it will match the gloss of a French polish, but at least you know it is real tung oil, along with solvent and some driers.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Violin Varnish and Sealers Violin Varnish and Sealers by Graham Caldersmith Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #276, 1984, and Big Red Book of American Luthierie Volume One, 2000 Probably more unsubstantiated speculation has been written about violin varnish, its effects on the instrument, and the quest for the “lost” Cremonese recipe than about any other of the subtleties of the violin and its behavior. It is true that those who have examined enough violins to appreciate the variety of varnishing systems employed by different makers in different ages cannot but admire the clear golden-brown varnish sometimes grading to a deep red that characterizes 17th–18th century Cremonese instruments. It is also true that varnish preparation and application techniques changed to more durable and convenient ones towards the end of the 18th century when faster drying oil and spirit varnishes were developed to meet the needs of the growing furniture trade, arguably at the expense of transparency and lucidity. So while bearing in mind that the early Cremonese varnishes were not unique to the violin trade, since they appear on fine furniture and wooden ornaments of the same period, we may reasonably inquire as to how important the varnishing techniques used by the Cremonese Masters were to the excellence of the violins they produced. Were the advantages of Cremonese varnishing merely passive, in that they preserved good violins into sublime maturity, or were they also active, conditioning the wood for optimal acoustical behavior? Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Stalking the Wild Pine Rosin Stalking the Wild Pine Rosin by Dave Raley Originally published in American Lutherie #78, 2004 Having read Louis De Grazia’s article “Rosin Varnishes” on p. 167 of The Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, and seeking an undercoat that would not turn cedar red, and also not wishing to breathe the fumes of any of the various synthetics, I set out to buy some rosin stock. Couldn’t find it. Eventually I thought to check out the pines in the yard. Sure enough, not a hundred feet from the porch there were nodules of rosin and rosin-coated bark free for the taking. We are talking about good old pine pitch. Gathering what I could from three trees, I chipped away some of the excess bark and filled a baby food jar loosely, topped it off with 190-proof ethyl alcohol and crimped aluminum foil over the top with a rubber band. The rosin dissolved in about a week and I began to make test pieces using the same stock the instrument was made of, to wit, cedar shingles. The tincture was darker than I had expected. It didn’t stain the test pieces a lot, but more than I wanted. Gotta have more rosin. A half-hour’s walk in the woods turned up enough mixed stock to overfill a quart baggie. About a third of the pines had at least a trace, and one in ten yielded worthwhile amounts. I had intended to fetch some cedar rosin while I was about it but couldn’t find any. Even the cedar that I had taken a branch off of last fall was clean. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 5, 2025 by Dale Phillips Jack Batts Jack Batts An interview by Jeff Feltman Originally published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 You can walk into a clockmaker’s shop and see fifty clocks. One reads 12:00, another says 11:55, another 12:05. Only one can be right, and it probably isn’t a bad guess that none of them is right. Searching for the right varnish is like being in that clock shop.” “A man could make 150 more violins in his life if he wasn’t so worried about concocting some witches brew. He would do well to spend his time learning to make a fine violin.” Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
