Minwax walnut stain + tru oil finish on tele.

[vestige]

Hey guys, my new warmoth tele arrived today.

I got it unfinished so now I am tossing up how to achieve the results I am after.

I want it to end up dark like the second picture. That guitar is ebonized, but I presume it must have been super diluted.

I was thinking I could have a crack at doing a similar thing. Making up the finish (vinegar, rusty steel wool) and diluting it heaps and having a go, and then doing a few layers of true oil once it is darker, to make the grain pop a bit more and hopefully give some slight protection.

What do you guys think? Is there an easier/better way for me to darken the wood?

Also, I presume that I would be okay to finish the neck in the same way? (I'd leave the rosewood fingerboard unfinished).

 

[greywolf]

Stew-Mac makes a black powder for tinting that works well when diluted with either denatured alchohol or  acetone . 

 

[jackthehack]

MinWax dark walnut or jacobean oil based stain is available at most every hardware store/Lowe's/Home Depot and will do the trick.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

If you want to do the ebonizing treatment, there are several posts if you search for them.  Something to remember is that you might deal with some nasty chemicals so be aware.  Also you might have to dispose of some nasty chemicals.  If I remember correctly the posts were quite in depth.  Otherwise, I agree with Jack, there are quite a few alternatives you might use that will do the trick.
Patrick

 

[Tonar8352]

I'm with Jack also. Try to find a dark walnut past filler because you are going to have to fill the grain to get it level so might as well color and fill it at the same time.

 

[jackthehack]

Here's a figured walnut Strat I did, used the "Special Walnut" MinWax shade, the "Dark Walnut" and  "Jacobean" shades are progressively darker:

 

[vestige]

Cheers dudes, on reflection, that picture of the ebonized tele above is actually deceiving, because I found the dude's thread with all the others and top down shots it is much blacker.

On that basis I think that ebonizing is probably the wrong way to go, and I'll have a crack at a dark walnut paste filler. Unfortunately I'm in Australia where all this sort of stuff is a bit harder to source. And that would get me something like the picture below? I'm thinking that would be the dark walnut.

I would fill the guitar as it is (currently sanded by warmoth to 220 grit?), and then do coats of true oil, and then sand to 320? Does that sound right? Sorry, my first time embarking on this sort of project.

Cheers for all the help guys. So hugely appreciated.

 

[vestige]

Okay, after a bit more research into the products you guys recommended, the current plan is:

Fill the grain with a product like this: http://www.globak.com.au/PREPARATION/Minwax®-High-Performance-Wood-Filler/29/productview.aspx

Sand to 320 grit.

Stain the wood with the walnut colour of this: http://www.globak.com.au/STAINS/Minwax®-Water-Based-Colour-Wiping-Stain---Finish-177ml/40/productview.aspx (there is a demo in the video on that page)

And then coat with tru oil to hopefully make the grain pattern pop more.

Sound about right?

 

[keeper006]

If you stain then sand then stain again, that helps the grain pop too.

 

[vestige]

Couple more questions:

If I grain fill with a walnut colour, will it fill the holes of the grain (i.e. not the nice grain pattern of the bookmatch, but rather the grain of the whole thing) and just give me dark flecks in the surface pores?

In which case, I think I want to be using a clear filler.

And where I'm grain filling, should I do a layer of stain first, then a grain fill, and then more stain? Or just stick to grain filling, staining over the top and then oiling?

 

[greywolf]

Watco danish oil comes in a walnut tone, worth considering . I've used it with good success. 

I would start with 220 let it drink in a few coats as it will be more porous , then sand to 320/400 apply another coat , then wet sand at 600

 

[vestige]

Well, after several more hours reading, I finally settled on a plan of attack.

So far I've grain filled the wood with Intergrain Woodblend in the Walnut/Dark Oak colour. I've given the Mahogany back 2 coats of the grain filler now (sanding with 240 in between) and the walnut veneer now has its first coat on. (I'm thinking 1 coat on the walnut might do, whereas the mahogany seemed to just soak it up.

On the second coating, when I did the walnut veneer also, I rubbed it in by hand. This seemed to work a lot better than the foam brush I used on the 1st coat, but it also left a lot more excess, as you can see in the picture below.

That being said, I got the method off a forum post where a dude had rubbed the filler in by hand, and the wine red finish he eventually had was spectacular. So hopefully it works out alright.

Now I've got to decide whether to use a water based Minwax stain or an oil based one. According to the bottle, the intergrain filler can be stained and is compatible with oil or water, so that should be fine either way. I'm also told that tru oil goes fine over water or oil based stain.

Any suggestions of which way to go?

 

[keeper006]

I think there is obviously more than 1 way to go that would work fine, personally I would go water based minwax then Tru Oil, which I have had success with and found easy to fix imperfections (i.e. places I screwed up) with.

 

[vestige]

Water based minwax and tru oil it is. That's the way I was leaning, so cheers for the confirmation.

Just touching up the filling now. The bottom edge of the veneer came out lighter than the rest of the wood so hopefully touching up that part will sort it. this sorts that problem.

So much dust everywhere haha

 

[vestige]

So after grainfilling with the intergrain woodblend walnut/dark oat, I think I'm going to strip it back, at least on the veneer, and do it again with ebony timbermate.

It's odd. I like how it looks on the mahogany, but on the walnut veneer it looks lighter than the actual mahogany, and lighter than it was on the mahogany side. I don't know if that's possible. The walnut is a really light coloured piece too. It doesn't do much to make the grain pop either, so black filler it is.

Any tips on removing water based grain filler? I'd rather not sand too much given that it is a veneer. I've read that you can use some sort of thinner?

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure you can strip filler out. It's down in the grain, where you really can't get at it. It usually takes stain, though. Maybe you should continue leveling it, and then stain it.

Another trick you might try for darkening without staining is Potassium Dichromate. I used it on a Mahogany body and got good results. Not the color I wanted because of the variety of Mahogany it was, but a good result, nonetheless. Walnut would respond the same way, for the same reasons. You can read what I did here.

 

[bagman67]

If water was the only solvent in the first place, I'd guess you can probably get it off with... water.  Try a damp rag.

 

[Cagey]

Try that with concrete.

 

[bagman67]

Well, yes, cagey - but at least one of the waterbased fillers (Timbermate) remains water-soluble after it's set.  Might apply to others.


Another approach might be to read the package.

 

[Cagey]

You're not going to trick me into reading the freakin' manual.