Finishing Update
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 7:47 am
Just completed finishing my first guitar.
Used Tru Oil and now letting it cure for a few weeks before I polish it and complete the build.
It wasn't easy so I thought I would pass along some of my experience so it might help other beginners.
As I said, I used Tru Oil and tried to follow an Eric Schaefer method shown on line .
Final sanding using 220 girt, sealer coat of shellac, Aqua Coat pore filler and 15 coats of diluted ( 3 parts Tru Oil with 2 parts mineral spirits ). Steel wool ( 0000 ) rub down between each coat.
Here is what happened.
1) I struggled with getting the Aqua Coat to actually fill the pores on my Rose Wood sides and back. I rubbed it on vigorously with a cotton cloth. Also tried the credit card method to force it into the pores. After 5 coats I thought it looked OK but found out as I went along it still wasn't good enough. In retrospect, I think I may have applied too much Aqua Coat which acted like a lubricant so when I rubbed it using the cloth it wasn't forced into the pores well enough. Still not sure how to make it work.
2) Applied thinned Tru Oil and saw how poorly I did the pore filling. I thought that as I applied coats it would fill in some of the pores. Discovered that thinned Tru OIl showes shows every little blemish in the surface since it is such a thin coat. Needless to say, it didn't fill in the pores with multiple coats.
3) Used steel wool between coats and came to the conclusion that steel wool should not be allowed anywhere near someone finishing a guitar. Little broken pieces of steal wool get into everything. I tried tack cloths, compressed air, etc. I discovered that some of the steel fleck were on my skin and would fall off when I applied the next coat.
Basically, I wasn't happy at all with the results after about 10 coats. So.... I sanded what I had down. Fortunately, I had applied enough coats of the Tru Oil so it acted like a pore filler. When I got down to the base layer, almost all the pores were filled with Tru Oil. So I started again. This time I applied three coats of Tru Oil and then instead of steel wool I lightly sanded it with 1000 girt using mineral spirits as a lubricant. I would then do another three coats and repeat. This seemed to work much much better. Also, I learned that old cotton tee shirts still leaves behind lint. I switched to a very fine old cotton dress shirt material for the outer layer of the mouse to apply the Oil. I also used a lint remover on the mouse to before using it.
Here are the result which I am happy with.
Also... Another issue with Tru Oil
I got a few dings in the surface after I had applied quite a few coats ( wasn't as careful as I needed to be ).
Found it was very difficult to deal with these using Tru Oil.
If you sanded them down you would leave a divot in the surface so that wasn't great.
You could sand the whole thing down and start again ( not a good option ).
In my case, I would apply Tru Oil to the ding and let it dry.
Unfortunately, you needed to do this quite a few times to build it up so you could sand it flush.
It took forever.
Anyway.... this is my rookie experience.
I'm sure there were easier ways to go about doing it and probably some of my conclusions you may not agree with.
Just thought I would pass it on.
Scamp
Used Tru Oil and now letting it cure for a few weeks before I polish it and complete the build.
It wasn't easy so I thought I would pass along some of my experience so it might help other beginners.
As I said, I used Tru Oil and tried to follow an Eric Schaefer method shown on line .
Final sanding using 220 girt, sealer coat of shellac, Aqua Coat pore filler and 15 coats of diluted ( 3 parts Tru Oil with 2 parts mineral spirits ). Steel wool ( 0000 ) rub down between each coat.
Here is what happened.
1) I struggled with getting the Aqua Coat to actually fill the pores on my Rose Wood sides and back. I rubbed it on vigorously with a cotton cloth. Also tried the credit card method to force it into the pores. After 5 coats I thought it looked OK but found out as I went along it still wasn't good enough. In retrospect, I think I may have applied too much Aqua Coat which acted like a lubricant so when I rubbed it using the cloth it wasn't forced into the pores well enough. Still not sure how to make it work.
2) Applied thinned Tru Oil and saw how poorly I did the pore filling. I thought that as I applied coats it would fill in some of the pores. Discovered that thinned Tru OIl showes shows every little blemish in the surface since it is such a thin coat. Needless to say, it didn't fill in the pores with multiple coats.
3) Used steel wool between coats and came to the conclusion that steel wool should not be allowed anywhere near someone finishing a guitar. Little broken pieces of steal wool get into everything. I tried tack cloths, compressed air, etc. I discovered that some of the steel fleck were on my skin and would fall off when I applied the next coat.
Basically, I wasn't happy at all with the results after about 10 coats. So.... I sanded what I had down. Fortunately, I had applied enough coats of the Tru Oil so it acted like a pore filler. When I got down to the base layer, almost all the pores were filled with Tru Oil. So I started again. This time I applied three coats of Tru Oil and then instead of steel wool I lightly sanded it with 1000 girt using mineral spirits as a lubricant. I would then do another three coats and repeat. This seemed to work much much better. Also, I learned that old cotton tee shirts still leaves behind lint. I switched to a very fine old cotton dress shirt material for the outer layer of the mouse to apply the Oil. I also used a lint remover on the mouse to before using it.
Here are the result which I am happy with.
Also... Another issue with Tru Oil
I got a few dings in the surface after I had applied quite a few coats ( wasn't as careful as I needed to be ).
Found it was very difficult to deal with these using Tru Oil.
If you sanded them down you would leave a divot in the surface so that wasn't great.
You could sand the whole thing down and start again ( not a good option ).
In my case, I would apply Tru Oil to the ding and let it dry.
Unfortunately, you needed to do this quite a few times to build it up so you could sand it flush.
It took forever.
Anyway.... this is my rookie experience.
I'm sure there were easier ways to go about doing it and probably some of my conclusions you may not agree with.
Just thought I would pass it on.
Scamp