Strip and stain

My first project violin: Suzuki Nippon junker.

The label means that it is made in a factory in Japan around the turn of the 20th century. "Made in Nippon" changed to "Japan" in 1914 so that's how I know. I bought it on Ebay for about $80 several years ago, with the goal of picking up violin again. I played for a year or so when I was a kid.

When the violin arrived I knew it would be in rough shape. Someone had sanded off part of the finish, the soundpost was rattling around inside, there was a big glued crack, and the neck was caving in. I went ahead and straightened the neck using wood glue (this was before I did a lot of research). I strung it up with its three remaining strings. The sounds issuing forth were so horrible I put it in the closet for two years.



This spring, I decided to fix it up.



I stripped it with Citristrip. The painted-on purfling came right off too. It's not even a good quality factory violin. Oh well, at least now it's honest!


I stained it with coffee (espresso boiled down to make it even thicker.) It was a nice color, but sticky.



I appled an egg white protein ground. Egg whites get beaten till stiff, then the liquid strained off is the protein. This lovely (NOT) stuff melted into the water-soluble coffee stickiness.



All this liquid raised the grain of the wood, which was my intention, except it did not raise the lengthwise "corduroy" grain, it raised the rough exposed fibers from sanding. You shouldn't really sand a violin, you're supposed to scrape it. I tried to remind myself that that was the last owner's fault, not mine, but I still hated it.



I rubbed off the extra stickiness and the color came right off. Everything came off except a last bit of sticky in which the cloth fibers embedded themselves. I got pretty frustrated at this point.



 I went out and ordered pumice stone, which is the abrasive you're supposed to use. It gave me a nice clean slate. The wood is a little darker than before all this effort, but not much.



Then I got a little crazy. I used food coloring for stain. Wilton gel food coloring, to be specific -- it is crazy concentrated. Here is the first coat, which is too red for my liking. Disclaimer: this is probably a bad idea. It will likely fade with time. It faded significantly in the first week or so.



Then I added extra color -- enough to take off in the antiquing process, so to speak.


A wet rag rubbed in the shoulder areas of the violin added just the contrast I was looking for.



Next post: oil varnish!