Make India Ink on Opaque on Alder - Any Ideas?

[alexreinhold]

I'm building a Tele Deluxe for my cousin and he wants the pitch-black ink look but ideally without having any grain pop through. He sent me this picture as a reference:


This finish, to me, looks like someone just put on 10 coats of ink without sealer or any clear/oil coating. I managed to talk my cousin into Tru Oil and Sheen for a satin look. The only puzzle I have to solve now is to achieve opaqueness with something like india ink. My thoughts are:

- enough coats of ink might suffice to achieve this because alder is very close-grain
- use some sort of base coat before applying ink

What do you guys think? Any ideas?

 

[Spud]

I'm building a Tele Deluxe for my cousin and he wants the pitch-black ink look but ideally without having any grain pop through. He sent me this picture as a reference:

View attachment 63938
This finish, to me, looks like someone just put on 10 coats of ink without sealer or any clear/oil coating. I managed to talk my cousin into Tru Oil and Sheen for a satin look. The only puzzle I have to solve now is to achieve opaqueness with something like india ink. My thoughts are:

- enough coats of ink might suffice to achieve this because alder is very close-grain
- use some sort of base coat before applying ink

What do you guys think? Any ideas?

Obviously I can't say for certain,but it almost looks like flat black paint to me. You will need some build to overcome grain.

 

[Rick]

I've only done this kind of thing with dyes, but somewhere at about 9 coats that's as much as the wood will absorb, and it becomes opaque after tru-oil.

Not black but here's my journey dying a body ...
https://unofficialwarmoth.com/threads/jazzmaster-build-with-a-home-finish.30424/page-2