Nitrocellulose over Tung Oil

[SH9195]

Hello Everyone,

Newbi finishing question.  I have built a Mahogany guitar body with a quilted maple top. Is it ok to finish the back of the Mahogany body with 100% pure tung oil and then spray on a gloss nitrocellulose lacquer (once the lilt fully dries). I love how the tung oil makes the mahogany look but want a gloss finish to the back. Just want to make sure that nitrocellulose is ok over tung oil. Thanks everyone! 

 

[stratamania]

I would personally if you are doing nitro just do that rather than mixing finishes for the sake of it.

Assuming also you have used a compatible sealer and grain filler.

 

[mayfly]

I'm not an expert, but I suspect that the lacquer will not stick over the tung oil.

 

[Seamas]

I have built a Mahogany guitar body with a quilted maple top. Is it ok to finish the back of the Mahogany body with 100% pure tung oil and then spray on a gloss nitrocellulose lacquer (once the lilt fully dries). I love how the tung oil makes the mahogany look but want a gloss finish to the back. Just want to make sure that nitrocellulose is ok over tung oil. Thanks everyone!

You need to not only make sure the tung oil is dry, you would also likely want to make sure it is fully cured, which depending on sources I have seen could be as much as 30 days.

A different cure time for the two different finishes could yield any number of issues, adhesion, cracking, flaking, etc
Then you have to consider the fact that the lacquer is going to have as much say--if not more say in the final look of the finish. The look you prefer of the tung on mahogany will very likely not be achieved when you put lacquer over it--or you might just get a preferable finish with just the lacquer.

If anything I would try on a scrap piece of mahogany and see how it holds up.

 

[redking]

I was also thinking of this recently, but moreso with finishing nitro over Tru Oil.  My gut instinct is that as long as the oil based finished is fully cured, it should be fine, but I would take the extra step of putting a sealer coat of shellac in between, because "shellac sticks to everything, and everything sticks to shellac" as they say.  In my case, I'm thinking of doing nitro over a couple of guitars that were built and finished in Tru Oil 5 years ago and the reason I want to do it is to make them a little more resilient to wear because the Tru Oil finish is so thin.

 

[Ric Moore]

I’m not anywhere near as experienced as most of you, but I’ve used a very light coat of dewaxed shellac over Tru Oil and then applied a few coats of Wipe On Poly over that with no apparent issues.

Just went back to my build notes and I’ve also done this without the shellac. 3-4 very light coats of TO over about a week, then cured for about 30 days, then did 3-4 coats of clear, starting with a 50/50 blend of spirits/WOP, gradually adding more percentage WOP, until the final coat was 100% WOP lightly sanding between coats.