varnish over varnish
 

is there any way of removing a newer finish that has been badly applied over the original finish . A few of my instruments seem to have had too many bad touch ups over the years , when touch up varnish was not only applied to damaged areas but in places overlapping what seems to be original varnish :mad:

You can usually remove touch-up varnish with some alcohol and this is why often touch-up varnish is just spirit or shellac; dries quickly and can be removed. But if the underlying varnish is also spirit based you have to be very careful not to remove it too! I usually resort to smoothing and blending what's there with fine steel wool or micromesh.

It depends a lot what is over what, and how well the job was done in the first place!

thanks for the info , makes sense to me ! Do you have a shop in Sydney? If so Ill come visit when next in OZ !