Lilting Fiddle

Removing Chinrest Cork Residue from a Violin

Posted on October 20, 2019

One of the minor issues I had when I bought my Fiddlerman Master violin was just cosmetic. When I removed the chinrest that came with it to replace it with my own, it left behind some sort of markings where the cork had been pressed against the fiddle. 

I mentioned this in my post, and Jim from Fiddling for Older Folks left a comment that informed me of a thread on the Fiddlerman forums that talks about how to fix that. So, I searched the forum and discovered the cork residue (or whatever it is) is a pretty common thing with violins, even high quality ones.

I did find this thread that gave some ideas on how to fix the issue. The idea that seemed least scary to me was to attempt to buff it with car polish. Fiddlerman approved and suggested Turtle Wax. Seeing I didn’t have any in the house, I hopped over to Amazon, picked up some Turtle Wax that seemed to be pretty gentle, and let Amazon Prime do its thing.

I got the wax today, and using a couple old rags I had on hand, followed the instructions for application. With a damp rag, I applied a little bit of wax and began to buff in the direction of the wood grain (don’t know if this matters).

It took a few application cycles – buff, wipe with damp rag, and then dry – and a little bit of pressure. But it worked! 

I was so pleased with the results that I went ahead and removed the chin rest and cleaned the spot under that since I had all the materials out to do it. It’s covered up, but may as well touch it up while I was working on it. 

Thanks Jim for the tip and thanks folks at Fiddlerman forums for a good solution!

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