The weather has over taken me, it’s getting pretty damp in the garage and light isn’t good, so I don’t think I’ll get the guitar finished this year.
Instead I’m switching my focus to learning how to finish wood, which is something I rushed on my first build. My first attempts are with a solvent based dye from Rothko and Frost. I’d say finishing wood well is at least as hard as building the guitar to this stage. I’m not doing for spray finishes due to a lack of equipment and I don’t fancy dealing with toxic chemicals of that level at this point.
Trying it on some off cuts, the top piece of wood is a quick pass through all of the coats to make sure they work together (not paying too much attention to careful sanding between layers). This consisted of:
- Black coat
- Sanded back with 180grit (should of been 220-320)
- Blue coat, blending into a blue/purple
- Birchwood Casey – Sealer and Filler
- Sanded back with 400grit (I was surprised just how quick I over sanded at this grit, as you can see I went through the stain by accident)
- Two coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil
- Sanded with 600 grit
- Birchwood Casey Wax top coat
The ash needed a lot more filler than I used and I have some small bubbles in the finish. I also tried dye after the sanding sealer (this doesn’t work, don’t do it) and diluting the colour of the blue down, which didn’t give a great result.
The second piece is a slower and more careful attempt at a blue only piece of wood. Currently it’s had one coat of the sanding sealer and needs one or two more. I’ll continue working through the stages.
I have some water based dyes in the post from the USA, as I’m finding the solvent based dyes hard to work with as they dry very quickly. I’m hoping this will give me time to work the dye into the grain, as you can still see a lot of un-dyed flecks in the grain. The powered aniline water soluble dyes are going to be a lot more hassle to prep, but I’m hoping easier to work with in the end. I have black, blue, red and purple (yes I could of made purple from the others, but for little extra it costs compared to postage I thought I’d cheat). Next post if hopefully my first go using these (and finishing off the bottom piece of wood from this set).