Restoration of a 7/8 prob. s. XIX austrian violin, unknown author
Violín profusamente decorado en tapa y fondo. Comprado de segunda mano en Austria hace décadas por un familiar de la propietaria. El trabajo parece bastante bueno y quizás fuera un encargo especial dada la decoración tan inusual.
Presentaba varios problemas, siendo el más grave de ellos las 3 rajas que presentaba en la tapa. Además había que sumar el puente rajado y vencido, la cejilla retocada varias veces con muy poca fortuna, las clavijas pasadas y rajadas, el botón roto y, en general, un aspecto bastante desesperanzador en el barniz. |
The first step was to open the lid and carefully examine the slits. Surprisingly, the largest coincided with a tunnel dug by some type of xylophage that, of course, had taken its mission in this life very seriously. Another backlight test showed more damage in other areas of the lid, although there was no trace of any insect.
I deliberately disinfected all the tunnels and pasted the slits, including others that appeared when the lid was opened and that from the outside were imperceptible. The reinforcements were made with good quality cloth and hot glue. Vertical Divider
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I restored the varnish of the lid before gluing it, since the beater would bother later, polishing and "stretching" the original varnish. Then I encolé the lid and continued polishing the rest of the box. I also noticed that the beater had been lightly varnished, which gave it a rather ugly "plastic" look.
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I sttabed the cloak until it exposed the fine ebony I was made of, which I polished with steel wool and a little oil. The new touch had been surprisingly soft. The capo was quite high, which gave me plenty of room to carve a new one with the good measurements and without even having to unstick it from the handle.
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I installed new plugs and a matching button, the closest thing to the original. The soul was also quite crushed and passed high (was forcing the lid), so I made a new one. It only remained to put a bridge, new tensors and strings (what is just a saying), and the instrument was sounding again after years of neglect.