The last coat of coloring stain will go on the violin belly today. Then, it will dry for at least a week before I do anything else to it. After drying, it will receive 2 coats of varnish to seal it. I have some shellac from Bob, but Im not sure how good it is. I will check it out as I work in the garage cleaning and setting up shop. I placed an order for 5 pounds of hide glue and 5 pounds of shellac flakes. The shellac will be to help color the violins and to seal them. The hide glue is to help glue the violins together. 5 pounds should last a few years because hide glue can be used very sparingly, so a little bit goes a long way. It can also be reheated and reused many times before it has to be thrown away. Before starting the repairs on violins, I had never used hide glue. I knew about it and thought that it was a bit of a pain to use and so never tried it. Now that I know how to use it(and its actually pretty easy) Im totally sold on it. It is a great glue that works on virtually all species of wood and makes a very strong bond. It doesnt soak into the wood, but rather grabs the surface and holds on. It also doesnt impede, dampen or deaden the wood tone and sound quality and, it is 100% reversible. You can put fresh hide glue over the top of old dried hide glue and it wont separate. You cannot do that with modern chemical adhesives. Even old hide glue can be revived. Violins and other strings like cellos, violas, double basses, can all be repaired simply by heating the old hide glue seams and adding new hide glue with it to reattached seams that separated with no problems. Even instruments over 300 years old can still be repaired using hide glue and the old hide glue still responds and joins with the new adhesive. Its really great stuff! It dries very hard, but yet remains flexible and responds to the wood without changing its acoustic properties. I love the stuff and will use it as often as I can. If I need to make permanent repairs that wont pull apart, I will use the Tlingit form of hide glue. An old traditional secret that I know about... Something Im willing to share only with other tlingits, but you must email me about the formula. I will never post it here. Its something that belongs to us and we should keep it with us.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 14:34:07 +0000
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