roasted ash redo

[teleme01]

so a question because i am a cheapskate and trying to get a 2nd shot at finishing, i have this roasted swamp ash body that i used poly, clear grain filler, and shellac ...  now i am thinking about trying to do a reverse dog hair,  white with darker grain fill ... so my question is can i sand it down enough to where the grain will reopen or has that ship sailed ... i am thinking that the grain fill already on it will prevent the dog effect.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

I bet you could still do it. Going to take some stripping/sanding and aggressive wire brushing to get the grain to open up again. If you are ready to use a bit of elbow grease, it will work. I sort of reworked mine midway. I wanted more color than just silver. I had only begun clear coating. So, I sawed off two bunches of bristles of my wire brush (still attached in the wood) and used it like a tiny mini brush to follow the grain and scratch out the silver wax where I wanted to put green and blue metallic finishing paste/wax. Pain in the backside, and tedious, but it worked.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

Just a quick thought, I wonder if the roasted wood being harder will not be as conducive to a refinish? I have never had a roasted, it may be easier/harder to wipe the grain? Dunno?

 

[teleme01]

i didnt do a full finish,  but enough of a finish to put some protection,  shovel theory,  but i may have it smoothe enough to make it challenging,  the brush sounds like a good tool,  if i proceed it will be in the summer.

 

[teleme01]

well its summertime and i still didnt have extra cash for another body so i took the above mentioned apart and started sanding,  i have ordered white rattle cans from stewmac and blue dye for the wood grain,  if worst goes to worst i will have an white guitar.

 

[teleme01]

i found this brush in my dads old toolbox,  works great for stripping out grain,  i think it will surfice as long as i dont over doit ,  my plan is ColorTone Vintage White Aerosol Guitar Lacquer,  followed by grain fill and then sealed down with wipe on poly to start and then piling on with shellac ... 

 

[stratamania]

What is your intention of putting on lots of shellac over wipe on poly for?

 

[teleme01]

my intention is to lock in the results with the wipe on poly and then build up the finish with the shellac,  should i skip the poly?

 

[Spud]

I think you could lock in results with the shellac itself. I also don't think you are a "cheapskate" for refinishing something. If it makes you happy, why not? Every guitar build doesn't need to be a new, high dollar, exotic wood, "spaltOcaster" to be prized and relevant.  :icon_thumright:

 

[stratamania]

If you are using wipe on poly I don't see the point of the shellac as it can end up cracking over time due to differences of flexibility of the two finishes.

I would suggest to just use some additional coats of the wipe on poly or just use shellac and no poly if you want a more "traditional" type of finish.

 

[Spud]

If you are using wipe on poly I don't see the point of the shellac as it can end up cracking over time due to differences of flexibility of the two finishes.

I would suggest to just use some additional coats of the wipe on poly or just use shellac and no poly if you want a more "traditional" type of finish.

I concur!  :icon_thumright:

 

[teleme01]

so i got my shellac out,  kinda brick like,  and i went for my denatural alcohol but i could not find that,  so what i do have is rubbing alcohol,  mineral spirits,  paint thinner,  will one of those substitute for the denatural stuff ?

edited with googled answer " One thing that will not work is regular old drugstore rubbing alcohol (which contains water, isopropyl alcohol, and other chemicals to make it undrinkable) because the water content is too high. It won’t dissolve the flakes well if it does at all. If you can find 98% or higher isopropyl alcohol, that will work, although it may take a bit longer to dissolve the flakes. Straight methanol would technically work, but it’s so toxic that we don’t recommend it.

so my question becomes will paint thinner work ?

 

[Spud]

Paint thinner will NOT work. Maybe just go with all poly instead?

 

[teleme01]

i ordered the ColorTone Behkol Solvent,  i never said i was smart and dont know the difference between behkol and naptha,  but stewmac said to use behkol,  i am safely not sorry yet

 

[teleme01]

so i got my paint and dye in first coat with spray on,  letting it dry,  and mixing up dye with clear grain filler  ,  the reason for the blue wood grain filler is to match a future neck with turquoise dots

 

[Spud]

On the front side, you might consider letting it dry and give it a sanding to even things out and then hit it again lightly with the spray.

 

[teleme01]

light sanding and 2nd shot of white

 

[teleme01]

first mess of grain filler before sanding

 

[teleme01]

not exactly what i was shooting for,  but then its only been like 6 hours,  i guess you would call this finish "almost paint ready"

 

[ragamuffin]

Hmm, I know t's not the look you were going for, but I kind of dig it  :dontknow: