Ken,
I must apologize for the lack of informations about the varnish and the work I made.
So this is the history
The instrument has been in my workshop for some years before I decided to work on it.
It came from an amateur maker, without bridge, tuning gears, tailpiece, soundpost, back bars.
He opened it and begun to repair the ribs with plywood and epoxide resin, and the neck with epoxide resin.
Luckily he quit the work and gave me the pieces.
I removed the plywood and the resin, made the repair of the ribs, which were heavily demaged with woodworms, changing two sectors of them near the lower block (too many woodworm tunnels) and the upper block, g side ( there was a plywood patch outside).
I used walnut wood for them to show the repair.
On the back I repaired the cracks and made the bars.
On the front I repaired the cracks and the joints and replaced the bass bar.
I made the neck graft.
There was a thick black coat of something over the varnish. It did not move with turpentine, alcool, trielin, aceton.
I cleaned it with waterproof paper, 600 grit, wet with linseed oil.
Under it I found what I think is the original varnish, a very poor one, made with a spirit varnish ( shellac? ) and pigments. It was very demaged and incomplete.
I made a similar one, shellac and colophon, and found (more or less) the same colour mixing burnt sienna and alizarin carmine. I touched , covered with clear shellac, retouched, recovered, and so on, until the varnish you can see on the instrument now.
I think I may say I revarnished the bass, even if I' m not proud of it...
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