Amber varnish

[rob streeper]

The first saw completed with this finish is here: https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...=198312&page=3
I rubbed this handle with rotten-stone to produce a satin finish per customer specification.

[D.W.]

Under the weather and taking the afternoon off both with the flu and a migraine. But not good at laying in one spot, so looked up amber varnish for a reason that I can't now recall. I think to see if anyone had successfully cooked it.

Rob are you still around?

I cooked amber varnish in 2023, approximately 45% resin and 55% linseed and then thinned with about 12 oz of turpentine. ....oh, and the resin and oil were about 20 oz total after cook.

I think to claim you made amber varnish is mostly seen now as not credible, but I made 16 batches of varnish last year and by the time I got to amber, I'd sawed through a couple of very high melting point copals, one of them with dirty resin and amber in pencil eraser size bits was actually easier.

The key to the run was tolerating 650-700F temperatures on the thermocopule at the bottom of the pot, letting the cook go wherever the behavior of the resin said it needed to be, and then as the resin darkened but was stable, truncating the run and leaving the 10% or so of the resin that didn't want to melt alone to be strained out. Put simply, trying to get all of that melted would ruin the rest.

I doubt anyone is interested in the process I followed, and it is dangerous. Running baltic amber is also the smelliest thing I've ever encountered in my life, and I did actually get knee deep in a hot summer dumpster at a high school job, and have smelled "in your face" half rotted animals. the smell of the resin running is so bad that a day after I did it 50 feet from my house, I hung outdoor lighting for a completely unrelated issue and the gutters of the house stunk like amber when I got on the ladder. It is the worst smell I've ever encountered, bar none, choking and gagging and heaving if you accidentally get a small whiff of the smoke.

As soon as its' ready for linseed oil, if you can get the oil in it, that smell is gone.

I have the better part of a quart when all is said and done. it's about 65% solid, maybe a little more as the turps boils a little bit when added late in the cycle and some of it probably cooks off. You thin the varnish with more turpentine when making some to use, and I pour off something like 4 ozs in a separate jar and add drier. That batch will probably be unfit for use in 2 years, but the full jar from the run that does not have driers should outlive anyone on this board by far.

ALCHEMIST™ Amber Varnish Clear in linseed oil Mediums, Binders & Glues | Kremer Pigments Inc. Online Shop

My varnish is almost a 1 to 1 ratio resin to oil, and kremer's is a much easier to get to look good 1 to 4 ratio. A softer and less hard varnish will result, but given it's amber, it's probably still fine.

the price is astronomical. I've seen other violin varnish makers who are doing it as cottage industry charge $1 per ml.

In my county, it is not legal to make varnish and sell it without setting up a cookery hood with a 1000F or something gas flue temp to burn off the stinky volatiles mentioned. So hobby is all it will be.

that said, most of the stuff for violin use seems to be long oil, which looks lighter in color. I suppose it would be possible for me to take this batch, put it back in the pot and boil off the turps and add more oil, but I want it hard.
https://ofhandmaking.files.wordpress...1537555381.jpg

The when the resin total is higher, the varnish is very dark - an orangey color a little bit.

The look of the film on the side of the jar shows what it looks like unthinned.

https://ofhandmaking.files.wordpress...1537640169.jpg

On louro preto (color similar to rosewood), it looks like this with a thin coat - the varnish when dry is extremely hard with a ridiculously high melting point compared to modern finishes, and it's waterproof before it's even fully dry, and very solvent and abrasion resistant.

it is not as user friendly as something like a good quality lacquer, though, but like the non-dryer store that remains in the jar, the applied finish should outlast anyone here if applied to furniture.

Makes a great quick and dirty wipe on finish for a chisel handle, though, and should also make a knife handle that would not be harmed by an accidental cycle in a dishwasher.