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Wiping on varnish

You should brush on a sealer coat first. Make the sealer by thinning one part varnish with two parts of high-quality mineral spirits or turpentine. Use the sealer liberally. Let it soak in for about a minute and remove the residue with a clean cloth. After 24 hours of drying you're ready to wipe on the varnish.

Virtually any varnish can be applied with a cloth. Just thin it to a 50/50 mixture with high-quality mineral spirits or turpentine. Pour it into a shallow pan. Make a small pad of cotton cloth filled with cheesecloth and tie it together with a rubber band. Dip the pad into the varnish and tap it to the sides of the pan lightly so that nothing is dripping off the cloth. Apply the finish in a circular motion and work quickly because the thin layers dry rapidly. Finish with light strokes with the grain. Let the surface dry overnight. Apply the next coats in the same way. Four coats should be the minimum.

Before leveling the finish with 600-grit wet-or-dry sandpaper the final coat should be left to dry for 48 hours.

Polish the surface with 0000 steel wool. When it has a dull sheen lubricate the steel wool with mineral oil and rottenstone and rub the surface for several minutes. Remove the grease with a clean cloth and you're done.

Varnish

Varnish is difficult to spray and is therefore mostly applied by brush. It is far more durable than a pure oil finish. Bar-room tables, for instance, are varnish-finished. Varnish is basically oil that has been cooked with natural resins such as rosin, amber or copal. Depending on the oil-to-resin ratio the results will be harder or softer. This is how, for example, violin varnish is produced. Nowadays polyurethane is commonly used in place of natural resins. Varnish also cures coat by coat and does not bond with coats applied underneath. Since it takes a long time to cure, an absolutely dust-free environment is essential. There are special brushes with bristles forming a tapered, chisel-edged end which are particularly suited for applying varnish.

In Austria, where varnish is virtually unknown, there was none the less a product called “Bernsteinlack” (Bernstein = amber) produced by the company Auro available (1). Unfortunately this product was discontinued in the meantime.

Use turpentine for thinning natural resin varnishes. Mineral spirits, which are made from petroleum, are often not even suitable for cleaning brushes.

All coats of varnish, apart from the first, should be applied v-e- e-ry slowly and should rather flow off the brush than actually be brushed on. If you are interested in a video demonstration of how to correctly apply varnish, I can recommend the video by Jeff Jewitt. Details can be found in the literature section.

By thinning varnish with mineral spirits or turpentine you get what is called “wiping varnish”, which is easy to apply with a cloth.

Wiped-on varnish

Instead of using a brush you can also wipe varnish on just like the oil finishes described previously. Because wiped-on varnish layers are thinner and dry quicker than brushed-on layers dust has less chance to adhere. Wiped-on finishes show less application marks which are easier to remove when being polished. Another advantage is that you have more control over the final thickness. Finishes should not be thicker than neccessary with musical instruments. Because varnish coats protect better than oil finishes I would recommend it for finishing a neck.

My favorate finishing choice