Clear finish?

The Achilles' Heel of Luthiery
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ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Clear finish?

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

I am just applying a finish to my #9, a Martin OO twelve fret in Redwood and Maple. I used Ivoroid in the rosette and as a top binding. I have heard good thing about Endurovar so thought I would give it a try. Love it so far - it brushes reasonably well and sands great. I put on 8 coats in 8 hours, then leveled, and then 4 coats in 4 hours but not yet leveled.

I know that no finish is absolutely clear, but this is quite brownish - I wouldn't even call it amber. The first two shots are with a wash coat of shellac, and the last picture is how it looks before final leveling and polishing with a piece of Ivoroid binding to compare. I want the look under the single coat of shellac.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a material that would be less colored and still easy to polish by hand?

Thanks

Ed
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Ed M
MaineGeezer
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Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:14 pm

Re: Clear finish?

Post by MaineGeezer »

I've used Tru-OIl with reasonable success. It goes on easily and builds up fairly well.

I think the biggest drawback to the stuff is that it is an oxidizing oil, like linseed oil. If there is any airspace in the bottle, it will skim over and generally thicken up if it's left to sit for any length of time. There are various expedients to slow or stop this from happening.

The easiest thing is to put the bottle away upside down. It will still skim over, but the skim will be on the bottom when you open it up. This doesn't work particularly well, but it's better than nothing.

Another trick is to fill the bottle with marbles as you use it so the airspace is minimized.

A third thing you can try is to replace the air in the bottle with a gas that is not oxygen. An easy one to use is propane. Just before you screw on the cap, stick the burner of a propane torch in the bottle (unlit!), give it about a 1- second blast of propane, and quickly screw on the cap. I've not tried this, but it sounds good.
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ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Clear finish?

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Maine

Thanks

I have used it on 2 already and don't care for it that much. It does not polish up as well as some I have tried, like KT-9 (not made any more) or EM 6000.

There is a commercial product called Bloxygen that does what you talk about - squirt a touch in and it is heavier than air and displaces it in the container. Also, I have used marbles and found clean stones are much cheaper because you end up throwing the whole mess away at the end anyway.

Ed
Ed M
Stray Feathers
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Re: Clear finish?

Post by Stray Feathers »

I used Brite-tone water-based on my first two builds and I would say it does not yellow as much as your finish appears to have done. I have not tried it again because I wanted to try lacquer, but may experiment on a ukulele, since I have a better spray system now too. Earlier thread here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8138 Photo below is the two first builds. One has a fresh sitka top, the one on the right is an aged top, sitka I think. The binding on that guitar is maple, if those points help you assess colour.
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Skarsaune
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Re: Clear finish?

Post by Skarsaune »

I've also used Brite-Tone and will again. Pretty happy with it.
jread
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Re: Clear finish?

Post by jread »

I'm following along here. I also didn't love the tru-oil finish though it is pretty nice. I think with a buffing wheel it would be really great. Compared to my french polish shellac, I'm not going to do it again.

But I certainly need to learn a hand polished finish that doesn't take so long as fp in case i need it. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
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