finishing prep

[tippie53]

I have been doing a good bit of finish experiments lately as you well know and here is a primer I would pass on

I have pics that will come soon but let me help you newbies how you can help yourself and make a good finish with simple techniques.

I am making a guitar for a charity so this is a great candidate for this experiment. I will be using water finish emtec water based lacquer.
The body is all mahgany 000 15 body that was donated by Martin. I sanded this to 180 grit. To that I then stained using minwax English Chestnut. After staining I sealed with shellac. After that dried I then applied Aqua Coat . I used 2 applications using a gloved hand to work it in then wiped it off with paper towels. That is now drying and I will get pics tomorrow and will keep you all posted on the progress.
I am also using a high figured hog neck so I can see if there is any differences in figure and non figure. So far I have about 2 hr total between sanding , staining , and filling. I am pleasantly surprise of the flatness of the surface and will expect a super gloss when buffed. I will let you know the exact finish I am using as I apply it

[lonecedar959]

Thanks John for taking the time to do the work and posting these tips and experiments...

I will be waiting patiently to see your results.

-Patrick

[phavriluk]

Most interested in techniques involving staining and light binding/purfling. I'm at a loss as to how to deal with stain contaminating purfling and/or bindings.

Thanks!

[tippie53]

scraping
I use a razor blade and grind the side like a scraper , using my fingers as a guitar I can scrape them clean. You can also try masking off the the binding but I learned scraping was the way to go with the plastic. On wood. I do mask wood off and shoot it with a few coats of clean then stain.

[phavriluk]

Thanks, John.