I found this video both relaxing and anxiety inducing. Such incredible, detailed work with sections of ‘everything you shouldn’t do to your cello’ I love it!!
Haha, thank you! I personally can't wait to do another cello to do a better job, but I'm currently working on my fourth violin since this one instead :-P But I will take the compliment, it's very nice of you ;-)
So beautiful to watch this. I am a painter. I recognise the brush movements in executing a thin veneer of glaze. Do you have any recommendations for restoring a early. Twentieth century french cello.
Thanks 🙂 It's still my own main cello to this day, and yeah, it does have its own personality. It can be a bit tricky to work with at times, but I really like its tonal character
Hello. Thank you for sharing this. Could you tell me what you used to wipe over the fingerboard.? Cd an you used the same thing on the entire cello surfaces.?
This is extremely interesting to me. I’m making my first violin and watching lots of videos about how. On the one hand I want a “perfect” finish but this makes me anxious and on the other the process you show looks amazing and makes me feel free about the process. The layering you show seems like a good approximation of the physical things an instrument might go experience in hundreds of years remembering it began life pristine. Question: what is transparent oxide?
Well first of all, let me say that I have changed the process quite a bit. I have said a million times that I'll finish some videos, but you know... Time... My main point, however, is that I think leaving the patches is a shame. If you varnish the whole thing and remove varnish, you get colour in the pores, it's way more interesting. Also, very few things wear instruments like sandpaper, I think pumice, chipping and maybe some ethanol are the way to go. I think by transparent oxide I meant transparent brown oxide by W&N. It's one of my favourite tube colours.
@@tobiasradmer4276 thanks for replying. I figured it must be a brown. I’m a painter and love colouring in layers with glazes, so look forward to using what I know in varnishing. I also want a very old antiqued look. Anyway do you know if I can use watercolour pigments to colour spirit varnish? I’m going to make my own with shellac benzoin etc.. These pigments can be very transparent. I have a lot of WN watercolour pigments.
Always tempting to leave it as is when you have it all clean and pristine. I don't think I'll ever do it, but I have actually seen a few instruments that were either left in the white or just varnished with clear. There are a few issues though, before you do it: 1) The varnish protects the wood, obviously, but it will ikely lose it's brilliance without varnish and become dull 2) I would be very afraid that the smallest amount of dirt would stick to it. Just handling the pieces while making gets them very dirty, and scraping them clean at the end is like power washing an old pavement 3) The wood will oxidize over time, so it won't stay bright white but will rather go somewhat yellow. If you did just do a clear varnish, that would make no difference to the sound, but we honestly do consider the appearence, and you would probably experience the sound differently. And just as a last note... Actually the best thing I know is "blonde" cellos from the 1700's Italy in the sense that they were once varnished, but now it has all been worn down, leaving just the golden colour of the ground under clear touch up varnish. It's not often that you see them, and you probably wouldn't consider them blonde, but... Yeah, that's a thing I like a lot. If you stick around, I'll have another varnishing video up in maybe a month or two where I will try to get at least some golden blonde areas on a violin. Maybe you'll find that interesting :-)
Thanks so much for the time and effort you are right so little available on refinishing. Is this a new cello or stripped? Why leave worn areas exposed? Aesthetics? Again Thanks so much.!
Hi! Yes, I completely agree. More is available today, but still not as much as I'd like. This is a new cello, I think I also attempted to film a few bits during the making. The thought behind leaving areas was to 1) save myself the work of wearing it down and 2) save varnish. I don't believe in that anymore, I like the details of varnish in the dents and nicks inside the worn areas. Personally I have come a long way since this one of course, and I have planned many times to make an updated video. I am even working on a cello right now, and I hope I can get myself to film some of the varnishing. It will not be as detailed of a video as this one, as I think managing the camera takes a little bit away from the actual varnishing, but I think it would be nice to show more realistic antiquing of a cello as well. It's quite a task with all that surface area 😂
Glad you like it! This cello was coloured with Winsor&Newton pigments, the specific ones are in the description. I added them straight from the tube, and I am quite surprised at how well they are holding up to this day. However, I have later on started mixing pigments with some of the varnish I am using and thinning it with oil varnish thinner so I can add a very thin coat, almost just wetting the surface. It makes the layer more transparent. I now prefer madder lakes for pigmenting and mostly use il pigments for antiquing, but if you are going to use them, make sure you only use the very transparent ones they offer like the brown oxide (my favourite) so you don't lose the refraction of the wood underneath :-)
Hi, thank you 🙂 I don't use this method anymore, but if you do a thin glaze of pigment, that is really easy to sand through. You can probably get a more even colour without signs of dust etc. if you VERY lightly sand the previous coat before adding the glaze. I imagine that would be preferable if you intend to sand the finish in the end, as those dust spots would be very obvious. Personally I enjoy a textured varnish, so even though I now use pigment evenly throughout the varnish and could sand it to get a more even finish, I don't. It's all about taste in the end.
So relaxing to watch! One question, for the "dirt" did you use oil paint like the one that's used for paintings or do you use a special type? Thanks in advance!
The dirt on this one is just regular oil paints for painting, yes. The exact paints I used are in the description, but it's really not that important, as long as you don't make it the same colour all over, and not black either. The dirt on this one was too black really. I may film my next varnishing as well, as I have a few ideas to make it all much more realistic. One thing I would say is rather than glazing with dirt, mulling the dirt into varnish and giving it a dirt varnish layer looks way better in my opinion. So if you're gonna try it, I recommend that. Cheers :-)
@@sunflowerdewhoney9513 You're welcome :-) Do stick around or check back in a few months for what I believe will be a decent realistic antique finish rather than this cello, which I consider more a painting of an old instrument than a replica. I'm very excited to try my hand at realism :-D If you try something yourself, good luck, and I'd love to see your result!
This is true in some ways. And thank you btw :-) But who is to say if it's "worth" antiquing? It really depends on who you ask. Some would be just as happy, maybe more, with a pristine instrument, and in that case it really isn't worth it, no. It takes ages and therefore increases the price significantly. When you say it's not worth doing in this way, however, I assume you think antiquing is good, but you have a faster way? To that I have to say... I think the method I used in this video is already way too fast. I have since made the process much slower by adding many small steps. It's a case of diminishing returns, you have to put in way more effort to see a small difference. But I have to say, I can't think of a fast way to antique that I like the look of. For instance, I see many factory instruments where the varnish is simply graduated, probably by spraying a burst, to give the colour difference of wear. That is not attractive to me, even a little bit. I think if you are going to antique your handmade instrument, put in all the effort you can and go for realism. That is the main thing I learned by doing this one where I didn't actually try to be realistic. The point is not to fool anyone like some people believe (which was the reason I didn't do it here), even the most skilled makers can't really make antiquing that looks genuine to a trained eye, at least not straight off the bench. The point is simply to achieve that feeling of playing an instrument that has lived a life, it makes some people feel differently about their instruments and play differently too. And in my case, I think the finish becomes a work of art in itself, and I think really geeking out in the varnish shows that you care and in turn makes people care about the artificial story you printet on to the instrument. I have since done a few more in a style that I like much better, but I haven't finished the videos yet. I also haven't finished tweaking my antiquing, there is a long way to go! But now that I've talked a lot... What is the faster way? I'm curious :-)
The varnish is definitely thicker than what I would do today, but the tone is quite good. I wouldn't recommend thick varnish though, and I also find the Hammerl one a little too soft for my taste
"Full varnished" (new, clean looking) varnished instruments also have many layers to build up colour and protect from wear tho. Antiqued doesn't necessarily have to be thicker. The one in the video sure appears to be on the thicker side, but also cause it's very transparent and shiny, doesn't help with the effect. Also store bought varnish, lots of siccative, can be tricky to apply in thin coats
@@richard_4675 Whoops, I seem to have replied from the wrong account. But yeah I thought the chances of you being close were pretty small. I'm not quite deep enough in luthiery yet to feel comfortable selling my own instruments, but even if I did I don't think I could ship it all the way there with a healthy heartrate ;-) I'm glad you like it though! If you're ever in the area, you're welcome to come and try it out :-)
@@tobiasradmer4276 I love the style you antique the instruments, it’s very unique. If I were to come to Denmark, how much would you be willing to sell the cello for?
@@richard_4675 Well, like I said, I didn't actually intend to sell this one. But if you are really interested, you can contact me on instagram instead, @tobiasradmer, just because I'm not too keen on sharing prices and information in comments. I have another one of the same model, which also plays very nicely. I am willing to sell that one, and can even revarnish and antique it if that's what you like. I have considered doing so myself, so I'm definitely open to it. And in case it's this one in particular you would like... Well, maybe something can be worked out, even if I wasn't planning on it. I'm glad you like the antiquing btw. It was an experiment to try out some ideas I had. I thought of it as a painting of an antique instrument rather than a real one if that makes sense?. For the next build I have developed it further to make a more realistic look, but with the same colours. Needless to say I'm very excited to try it out on a real instrument :-D
And then you buy it and say, oh, it looks a little worn, not as shiny and new anymore, but I'll buy it anyway because I like the sound, never thinking about what effort someone made to make it look just like that! 🙃
No, It's all about art. Yes It's technically unperfect at the physical condition, but an Antique looking is the most desirable model of an instrument for a soloists. It's better than just a flat, one coloured CSO (Cello shaped Object)
This is Joha/Hammerl 1a oil varnish. Nice to work with, especially if you're new to varnishing, it levels itself and is very transparent, but it sets too quickly for me, especially with the colour extracts. I have recorded two more of these where I try to do more of a realistic antiquing on a violin, one with Hammerl and one with Old Wood. Stick around if you're interested in those, I will try to edit them. I really just need to find some music for the first one. I love this piece, but I can't use it twice in a row... :-P
my friend, don't be angry, but when you varnish so much jam on an instrument, it looks like it fell in a jam pot. you should inform yourself beforehand and it has absolutely nothing to do with antiquing. Lüdgendorf would say dilettante.
Haha... Not sure I know what you mean by jam, but I do agree that it's not a great antiquing job. I don't know why I called it antiquing to be honest, I remember while I was working on it my intention wasn't a realistic antiquing but rather "a painting" of an antique instrument. I should've gone for realism, but hey... Like the description says, this is one of my very early instruments, number four overall. They are all part of my learning, and there is no better teacher for me than mistakes, so I don't regret what I did and didn't. Most importantly, it's the best cello I own, and I still play it today. I should probably film an updated one, but it's so much extra work filming as you varnish... Now please don't get angry yourself, but you should be careful with your comments. I like criticism myself, but saying "don't get angry" does not change what you write in the comment. "Fell in to a jam pot" and "Inform yourself beforehand" are rather harsh, and it would still be hurtful to more sensitive people who had their work criticised. Even for me, it was enough that I had to comment on it I guess :-P
@@tobiasradmer4276 I disagree with the other poster, I think you have done an amazing job. You may be an amateur (if I understand correctly), but you achieve a very high standard. It's also very interesting to see antiquing done in real time, as there is hardly any information available for us (ie. hobby violin makers) on this subject. I looked for your other videos but could not find the next ones that you said were coming out.
@@nickyork8901 Well thank you! I agree with you, I didn't find much in terms of antiquing videos, which is why I made these. They were never meant to be instructional, but I hope it is interesting to some people to see the process of others. And you called me out there, life got in the way 😅 I'll see if I can finish them soon, I do have two violin antiquings recorded
Your suggestion is just "thinning the Varnish", but your argument is just sounds like "scary teacher's correction". Why do you not just focused on the thing you wanted to correct?
