Books › Violin making and repairing, 1927 › scan 83
Scan 83
Violin making and repairing, 1927
11 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1gum resin, and heat is required to dissolve it in the turpentine.
3A few additional remarks must be made at this point about this latter substance, for it is one of the rocks upon which the varnish-maker is often wrecked. There are several varieties of turpentine, from the genuine raw oil of turpentine, as it comes from the pine tree, to the distilled spirit of turpentine with most of the natural resin removed. This latter substance, spirit of turpentine as it is called, is of very little use for fiddle varnishes.
5The turpentine required is of a yellow colour, oily in appearance and sticky to the touch. It forms a gummy residue round the rim of the bottle in which it is kept. This gummy residue is in effect exactly what is required on the fiddle. The turpentine when laid on the violin in the form of a varnish attracts oxygen from the atmosphere and gradually solidifies, forming a tough hard gummy film which will last for a hundred years or longer. Again, colour, generally speaking, will readily dissolve in this oil of turpentine, and on the contrary the spirit will frequently refuse to combine with colour in any circumstances.
7When the violin-maker is perfectly sure that he has obtained this substance he may proceed to boil his gum resins in it, using ½ pt. of oil of turpentine, ¼ oz. of mastic, ⅛ oz. of copal. This is a long process, as the gums will only dissolve very slowly, and the boiling (on a water-bath) must be kept up until the gums are thoroughly incorporated with the turpentine. one of two readings
8When the violin-maker is perfectly sure that he has obtained this substance he may proceed to boil his gum resins in it, using 1/2 pt. of oil of turpentine, 1/4 oz. of mastic, 1/8 oz. of copal. This is a long process, as the gums will only dissolve very slowly, and the boiling (on a water-bath) must be kept up until the gums are thoroughly incorporated with the turpentine. one of two readings
10A method sometimes adopted when the gums are
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