Violin Forum/Message Board

[Mat Roop]

I do mostly touch up work and constantly throw out 3/4 jars of stale varish ... Just hate to do that.... especially considering the cost.
Here is an item I came accross... http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=30268&cat=1,190,44133
Has anyone used it... does it really work?
Cheers, Mat

[Chad48309]

It makes sense. Argon is entirely inert and is 2.5 times heavier than Oxygen. The argon will sit on the finish inside the can and prevent it from drying out. Just don't shake the can after it's in there.
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-C.S.

[Michael Darnton]

For many years there was something sold as a preservative to prevent the oxidation of photo developer. It was something like this that you sprayed in the bottle. I have not read this thread, but it relates to the topic:
http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-73041.html

Instead of this stuff, though, I always took a deep breath, held it as long as possible, and gently exhaled into my developer bottles, and that worked fine. CO2 is heavier than air, settles on the surface, and prevents oxidation, which is the process by which oil varnish hardens. I have never tried this with varnish, though.
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[Mat Roop]

Interesting thread Michael... just hope that photographers using butane and propane don't get a flash in their darkroom!
Also... I did not know that argon works well for preservation of open bottles of wine and olive oil.
http://manjada.org/2009/10/argon-gas-preserves-wine-and-olive-oil.html
Lemuel... you should add it to your catalogue for luthiers
Cheers, Mat

[Chad48309]

Interesting read, Mat. Wine and olive oil are among my favorite things!
_________________
-C.S.

[Lemuel]

[Chet Bishop]

The whole point of Argon is that it is truly an inert gas-- it will not combine with your food, or anything else. In fact, the only way in which Argon can be dangerous, is in the very fact that is is heavier than air. In large quantities (Hundreds of cubic feet, minimum--usually thousands) it can displace the oxygen in an enclosed space, and cause the suffocation of people or animals in that space.

For purposes not requiring an absolutely inert gas, Carbon Dioxide works by the same principle. It displaces Oxygen, and stops the oxidation of the thing you are trying to preserve. It, too, can be dangerous in very large quantities, as it can cause suffocation. But neither gas is dangerous if ingested-- the one, because it is utterly benign, the other because it is something you produce all the time, through oxidation of blood sugar and respiration.

I would have wondered whether the water vapor you also exhale would have a detrimental effect on the varnish, but evidently it does not...
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Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
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[Dave Chandler]

Wouldn't it be imperative as well to store varnish in the dark in the event of inadvertant UV exposure causing it to thicken as well?
_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[Chad48309]