How to Make Violin Polish

Violin polish helps you keep your violin, fiddle or similar instrument in tip-top shape. It nourishes the wood and lubricates the areas near the strings and tuners. This keeps your violin sounding its best. Knowing how to make your own violin polish saves money you would otherwise have spent on expensive brand names and helps you control the amount of alcohol, a drying agent, that you use in your formula.

Things You'll Need

• 2 qt. glass bowl
• 1/2 cup linseed oil
• 1/4 cup grape seed oil
• 3 tbsp. beeswax
• 1 tbsp. ethyl alcohol
• 8 oz. lotion bottle

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Instructions

• 1

  Pour the linseed oil, grape seed oil and beeswax into a glass bowl. These ingredients commonly occur in instrument polish formulas. The first two ingredients are drying oils while the beeswax serves as a binder.

• 2

  Microwave on high for three minutes, or until the beeswax pastilles melt into the oil.

• 3

  Stir the ethyl alcohol into the bowl of melted wax and oil. You can find ethyl alcohol at a grocery store, department store or pharmacy. It acts as a drying agent to keep the oil from penetrating your instrument too deeply. Using too much of it can damage the wood, so don't use more than a tablespoon.

• 4

  Stir the contents of the bowl for two minutes as it forms into a thickened, creamy oil. Pour the warmed contents into a lotion bottle. Leave the bottle open until the polish cools to room temperature.