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when sanding the body prior to finsh do i need to tape off the plastic binding to protect from scratches
or rescrape after sanding to smooth it back out

i plan to do a tru oil finish so i will be sanding to a very fine grit as i have read on other posts here

will tru oil finsih hide any scratches on the binding?

thanks in advance for any suggestions

Beau

Beau, I've never done tru-oil, so not sure about it's properties. You don't need to tape the plastic though if they are dark. If they're white, I'd be careful especially if your wood is dark. That has a way of discoloring the white. My first kit had black binding and I used a water based finish on it. The bindings came out looking very nice, all black and shiny.
Good luck with yours.

Since sanding is done before you actually start the finish process , I scrape the binding clean after the stain and filling stage, this will give them the clean untouched look you are looking for.
Don't sand too high 180 and 220 is about as fine as I will sand on the raw wood.

Thanks for the input. I have read on this forum that some sand to as high as 1200 but only if using a tru oil finish as it does not need to grip the wood like a laquer finish. Have I misunderstood?

Beau

All finish needs to anchor on the wood by some mechanical means. Penetrating finishes do not need as rough of a surface to cling to as other coatings .A good place to look for application info like sanding and schedules is the manufacturers website but Birchwood Casey gives no technical specs on this finish on their site most likely because they are not a finish coatings company. That said I think sanding to 1200 before applying any type of finish is generally a bad idea. At the very least it is wasted time and effort and at worst can be the cause of a finish that peels after time. I see no reason to ever prep sand wood beyond 220 prior to applying a finish.

B. Howard wrote:All finish needs to anchor on the wood by some mechanical means. Penetrating finishes do not need as rough of a surface to cling to as other coatings .A good place to look for application info like sanding and schedules is the manufacturers website but Birchwood Casey gives no technical specs on this finish on their site most likely because they are not a finish coatings company. That said I think sanding to 1200 before applying any type of finish is generally a bad idea. At the very least it is wasted time and effort and at worst can be the cause of a finish that peels after time. I see no reason to ever prep sand wood beyond 220 prior to applying a finish.

I use Tru-oil on my necks and sand to 1200 (220 on the body). Tru-oil likes an ultra smooth finish and with this method the finish comes out smooth as glass. I pore fill with a 50/50 mix of Tru-oil and mineral spirits forming a slurry to fill the pores, once with 150, once with 220. After pore filling I apply it by wiping it on with a cut up white cotton T-shirt. Here are a couple necks I'm finishing up.

Thanks for the input. I will proceed as advised. Nice finish on the necks Tim

body and neck after several coats of tru oil many more to go need to work on my pore filling technic a bit but i am liking the look so far

here is the neck

Looking good. What did you end up sanding too?