Alcohol will only damage the varnish if a spirit varnish has been used: oil based varnishes (as used by most professional makers) are untouched.
Alcohol quickly evaporates so there is no significant residue to block further gluing. MH --- On Wed, 1/2/12, Taco Walstra <[email protected]> wrote: From: Taco Walstra <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Alcohol as glue breaker. To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 1 February, 2012, 7:25 On 01/31/2012 07:09 PM, Bruno Fournier wrote: My wife is a luthier and always uses wet heat. Alcohol will damage the varnish and repairing the varnish is a lot of extra work, especially with violins and celli. (Although after the opening and closing of the instruments a varnish repair is also necessary with the wet heat tool, but much less). Using alcolhol is the amateur way of working. In the same line: A lutemaker in the netherlands used/uses woodglue to glue damaged lutebridges. Although he thinks himself a professional he's clearly not. taco > Have always used wet heat. > > A > > wouldn't regluing after be a problem? as there might be remnants of the > alcohol preventing the glue from binding properly? > > A > > Bruno > > A > > A > > On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:06 PM, William Samson > <[1][1][email protected]> wrote: > > A I use alcohol - I learned the trick on a course I did in piano > repair. > A Very effective! A The downside is that it could hurt the finish - > A especially if it's a French polish. A Ordinary methylated spirit > works > A just fine. > A Bill > A From: Herbert Ward<[2][2][email protected]> > A To: [3][3][email protected] > A Sent: Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 16:31 > A Subject: [LUTE] Alcohol as glue breaker. > > A I asked a luthier how he broke the glue joint in doing > A a repair. A I expected to hear a description of some > A variation of wet heat. > A To my surprise, he said that he used anhydrous ethyl > A alcohol (eg, 190 proof Everclear liquor). > A He said that the alcohol drawa all the water out of the > A glue, and that perfectly dry glue has no strength and > A comes apart easily. > A Does anyone else use alcohol? A Why do some luthiers use > A alcohol and others use wet heat? > A To get on or off this list see list information at > > A [1][4][4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > A -- > References > A 1. [5][5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > A > > Bruno Cognyl-Fournier > > A > > [6]www.estavel.org > > A > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:[6][email protected] > 2. mailto:[7][email protected] > 3. mailto:[8][email protected] > 4. [9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 5. [10]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 6. [11]http://www.estavel.org/ > -- -- References 1. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 2. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 3. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 7. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 8. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 10. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 11. http://www.estavel.org/
