In doing our antiquing we try to leave a texture to the wood and varnish that we feel would be on unpolished instruments of the last centuries. We wear the wood down only modestly unless we are making an exact copy. We have studied the ways that players handled their instruments in the past and shade or chip off the varnish where they were held and touched the most. We have made copies that replicate an original instrument and while these are challenging and fun and a wonderful time for studying a makers habits, it’s difficult to want to do it more than a few times on a particular instrument. Its more fun to come back to that pattern and imagine the “next instrument” from that maker. We like to think of an antiqued instrument as an actor playing the part of an historical character and we try not to overact.