Violin Forum/Message Board

Dave Chandler · Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 5:59 pm Post subject: Stabilizing old spruce

Im rebuilding an old factory violin labelled Mathias Thier in Wien 186x. Had a hairball the size of a nickel. Many earlier repairs inside the top. The wood is so fragile, I think the top is nearing its end. Thinking of coating it with something to give it some additional life. Recommendations?

Thinned clear shellac?
Thinned lacquer?
Egg white?
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Southern Violin Association

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Michael Darnton · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:12 am Post subject:

Don't! I've seen this several times and had to remove it each time to do more repairs because the coating was in the way or had failed.

in the worst case someone had used hide glue over the whole inside and the top distorted. In another case someone had lined the edges with glued in layers of silk which made a mess and had to be taken out just to get to the wood underneath. Both shellac and lacquer will repell further gluing of cleats or patches.

If you feel the need to do something, use very thin reinforcing studs carefully fitted only where they will do the most good, and don't line their edges up or you will create a stress riser and cause new cracks.

Probably, though, leaving it alone is best: unless there's a strong tonal problem to correct, you may create one, instead.
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Dave Chandler · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:44 am Post subject:

Thanks Michael. It had an ugly dark film all over inside top, most of which I sanded off. Cleats installed long ago dropping off, glue had released from the wood, perhaps as you said someone long ago sealed the interior with something causing the condition. No idea of tone, its been in pieces for many years.
_________________
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