Thanks for the info, Richard. I was particularly interested to read:
Turpentine never completely evaporates. A small percentage remains in the varnish as an elastic resinous substance. I noted in examining the photos that I have of mastic used as a ground for guitar rosette inlay, that even though the samples were literally hundreds of years old, the mastic had shrunk very little if any and no elements were missing. This indicates to me that the mastic retains some elasticity even though the wood moves. I doubt whether acrylic modelling paste or epoxy has this important property. Similarly one can see plenty of shellac and oil varnish finishes centuries old that have not crazed or cracked, while the various early synthetic finishes used on pianos have not been so durable and frequently exhibit damage related to substrate movement. The samples of dammar resin that I looked at the local art supply store were hard and inelastic. I'm hoping that's one reason that the original chios mastic will be superior. I found that chios mastic was used as a varnish resin for painting before dammar resin (from Indonesia) was adopted as a cheaper and more abundant alternative in the 19th century. It's one reason to stick with the "natural" solution. Thanks, Clive Titmuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.earlymusicstudio.com early music downloads and cd's -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
