Stripping no. 3, the one with the heavy red varnish, finished in December. Never did like the way it turned out, so now to do something about it. Citristrip takes the varnish off well, though there is plenty of detail work to get it out of the nooks and crannies, as they say.
Here are Chinese white (varnished) and previously varnished No 3, now stripped, both in my specially made UV box, catching a few rays.
Here is the recently stripped violin with some ground on it. I polished it down with a little varnish and pumice, stained with a little tea, then a little more varnish and pumice, followed by diluted amber shellac. To dilute it, I used alcohol to which I had added madder root -- a tincture -- a few weeks prior. It did change the alcohol to a reddish color, but didn't seem to have much effect on the overall amber shellac color.
