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Thread: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

  1. #21

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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    I am 100% the wrong person to argue with about this topic.
    Thanks, but I'd rather just watch:
    Large format: http://flickr.com/michaeldarnton
    Mostly 35mm: http://flickr.com/mdarnton
    You want digital, color, etc?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradofear

  2. #22
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Do you base that on multi-million dollar contracts like people dependent on my advice for the past four decades have? Have you sold over a hundred million dollars in wood finishing machinery, or put together the largest selection of high quality finishes west of New York state? I wish your photography well. But I'll stick with my own advice on this one ...

  3. #23
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    A little off topic, but I recently made a replacement part for a Deardorff. I found that this Varathane product was a perfect color match for the original.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails FB7214F0-DA7B-46F7-BF7E-BCBF82816241.jpg  
    Keith Pitman

  4. #24

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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Drew, I base it on 35 years of actual hands-on work, for instance on the approximately $100,000,000 in antique violin-family instruments that passed over my bench last year alone, including five Stradivaris and five Guarneri del Gesus, along with many others of similar provenance. I have forgotten more about traditional varnishes than you know, as they say, and have actually worked with them, made them, restored them. You probably do know more about plastics, however.
    Thanks, but I'd rather just watch:
    Large format: http://flickr.com/michaeldarnton
    Mostly 35mm: http://flickr.com/mdarnton
    You want digital, color, etc?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradofear

  5. #25
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    That sounds fun. I dealt with a violin factory for many years, but as a small-volume secondary client. One client had billions of dollars at stake, but with that budget had there own engineers and scientists, and I merely supplied the shellac they specified, but told me why. I just wish Al Capone was still around when Chicago needs him, cause he knew what real alcohol is. I've probably been involved in the actual removal of five million times the shellac you've ever seen, and that's what the topic is hypothetically here, removal. Maybe it was never used on Dorffs except the hardware. They couldn't afford maleic acid resin. I'm not a Dorff user, so you tell me. Well before your 35 years of hands-on work, which certainly sounds excellent, I had personally hands-on removed mansions-worth of deeply layered shellac, made my own faux woodgraining finishes, restored these things inside and out (didn't do the structural work). Then I introduced the machinery to revolutionize the process. Deeply-layered shellac is on old building everywhere around here, often with just about every other kind of finish over the years atop it. I had to know how to handle every layer. I turned University projects that once took five years into two-week restorations. Entire forests of the world's tallest trees were cut down to make these buildings. And all hell breaks loose if a hundred year-old patina on redwood is messed with, and just not the finish precisely removed. I should probably look up some of my past clients and see if any of their project books are currently being published. One of them was featured on a PBS Nova special not long ago - the most expensive new wooden house in the world, and the most expensive yachts in the world, were built by people who have known me on a first name basis for decades. Violins? I inherited a violin my great-grandfather made; but my school music teacher gave me dirty looks until the year he died. So I'll keep my mouth shut on that particular subject.

  6. #26
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Give it up Drew.

    Industrial usage is one thing. Mansions will fall. Ancient violins are another and I daresay far more valued. Not just by their trading price which is in the millions as the sound we all get to enjoy in concert. Priceless and irreplaceable with any contraption made in the last few centuries.

    I am a frequent visitor to mdarton's location and it blows away anything the west coast can imagine, silicon billionaires included. Location. Principal users. But primarily for his valued skill. I have sat and watched him work.

    I also have heard 'fiddles' played exquisitely in private parlors. Priceless...oh I said that.

  7. #27
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    I have no idea what Stradivarius originally coated violins with. I don't know if anyone does. When I refer to a five million dollar remodel, I'm referring to the cost of refinishing itself, not the value of the property! The actual owner could probably afford every Stradivarius in the world on a month's worth of income. A hundred million dollars worth of violins might involve only a few gallons of finish. Shellac is a deposition finish, not a polymer. Or do you imagine that any camera mfg could afford a amber in poppyseed oil varnish like Louis IV commissioned, which do not craze but would cost about $200,000 a gallon today? We are in fact talking about commonly available industrial finishes, and not even close to the best industrial finishes of the Dorff era. I've dealt with acres of the stuff. Tell the people that these buildings don't matter much. Many of these are architectural landmarks. Do you know what just a simple table made personally by Wright would cost? And I'm taking about dozens of em, and the walls, and the floors, and yep, now with Daly's finish on it. It ain't just violins that get into museums. I realize a Dorff ain't a violin. It might make a good accordion. But frankly, Randy, you don't have the slightest clue about my actual career. No disrespect intended, but how could you?

  8. #28
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Some of these buildings employed the finest artisans in the world at that time. Julia Morgan used the same people on local projects as on Hearst Castle. Price was no object. No income tax yet. Specialists were brought in from Europe and retained for years. One of my close friends was recently involved in Ming Emperor restorations, valued in hundreds of thousands of human lives back then. A single authentic replacement tile takes a year to make (of course in volume, but a year to completion). He was my best Daly's customer (no, not for anything Ming!). But if it's good enough for someone's house who can afford an entire Hawaiian Island, it should be suitable for a wooden view camera.

  9. #29
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Of course. Whatever you care to write.

    And yes, I have no clue.

  10. #30

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    Re: What finish did Deardorff use in the 50s-60s?

    Large format egos forum????

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