First attempt at staining and tru-oiling a body (first post, too!)

[Bryan T]

This is my first shot at finishing a guitar body.  The body is poplar.  The body had a lot of color variation, including greens, near whites, and dark sections.  

I stained the body with Minwax water-based wood stains (Rosewood color) and used the pre-stain treatment, too.

First coat of stain (camera phone pic):

I did two coats of stain and it took pretty evenly.

After a second coat of stain and the first coat of tru-oil (Elph pic):

After three coats of tru-oil (camera phone pic):

I'm having a lot of fun with this and feeling a sense of accomplishment, too.  I'll try to update this thread as I get closer to a finished guitar.

Bryan

 

[DangerousR6]

Nice job, looks pretty sweet... :icon_thumright:

 

[bbl4ck]

Man, for your first project, I will be feeling pretty darn good.
Great work and be sure to keep postin' those pics.
Welcome to the forum and  :rock-on:

 

[zogoibi]

It's a blast seeing something start to take life when you focus your energy into it.  Nicely done-keep us posted.

 

[dmraco]

looking good.  Can't wait to see it after something like the 20th coat!!! :toothy10:

 

[bagman67]

That's a handsome looking tele - I've been interested to see how poplar takes a stain, and you're very kindly gratifying my curiosity.  Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[Bryan T]

That's a handsome looking tele - I've been interested to see how poplar takes a stain, and you're very kindly gratifying my curiosity.  Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Aesthetically, the biggest issue is the end-grain.  Parts of the end-grain did not want to take the stain.  I think the front of the body looks really good.  The back looks pretty good, but had a lot of color variation, so that comes through a bit more.

The middle of the back was really light and the edges had a lot of green. 

We'll see how many coats I have the patience to do.  I was planning to do 10.

 

[Patrick]

it kinda looks like a tru-oil burst on the back

 

[-CB-]

I like that!~  It looks just like the poplar body I did with Kiwi Brown shoe polish... I'm not berating you...!  Its great!~ Love it.  I want another KiwiKaster!

 

[Nando Vallart]

Welcome to the forum!
It's looking cool, although I think it'd be even more nice a little darker!
cheers

 

[Cagey]

That body is really turning out beautiful! I've never seen one done in poplar, but I probably would have tried to do a green finish so as to not clash with the natural green in the wood. As it turns out, though, the brown is working out just fine, and is a better color. While certainly doable, green is tough to make look good.

 

[Bryan T]

I'm up to the ninth coat of Tru-Oil.  I think I'll do one more and then let it sit for a week or two before Micro-meshing it to a gloss.

Some lessons so far:
1.  Really examine the body before beginning.  Remove any dings if possible.  I didn't do this and the small dings in the body get progressively more noticeable.
2.  Lint-free cloths for Tru-Oil application are the way to go.  I ended up using paper towels (heavy "shop towel" types) after trying to use old t-shirts that kept shedding lint.
3.  End-grain is tough.  It didn't take the stain well.
4.  Look for (and deal with) high spots in the Tru-oil as they develop.  Each finish layer makes the high spot more bigger.

I'm thrilled with how well it is going so far.  This is my first finishing project of any sort, so I've learned quite a bit.

 

[SlingBass]

This site full of expert advice accumulated over the years.  It's (also) good to blaze your own trail, and learn from that.  Enjoy 

 

[Bryan T]

After the 11th coat of tru-oil:

 

[zogoibi]

I like that oozing artwork coming down your wall; not to digress  :kewlpics:

 

[bbl4ck]

I like that oozing artwork coming down your wall; not to digress   :kewlpics:

Yea, I was noticing that too.  Cool...  :headbang1: