Tried and True finishes and Roasted Maple/Swamp Ash

yaarrr

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Has anyone tried using Tried and True finishes on roasted swamp ash and or roasted maple?
I have a roasted swamp ash body with roasted flame maple neck from warmoth in a telecaster shape.
The fretboard is rosewood, and I'm hoping for a thin finish just to make the grain a bit more visible and provide a little sweat and grime protection.
I quite like the satin finish on my mom's seagull acoustic and was hoping for something with a feel like that.

I'm testing out this Tried and True Original Finish on a random piece of scrap wood I had and like the look so far. It claims to be just boiled linseed oil and beeswax, wondering if anyone has tried it on warmoth's roasted wood or any other similar experience with this oil/wax combination.

I have next to no experience finishing wood, so any tips would likely be helpful to me, and I'll post some results as I work on this in case anyone else comes along and is interested.
 

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I've used it, it certainly behaves like a mix of blo & beeswax. I'd say it's as good as the for-purpose fretboard conditioning oils I've seen, as well as having the nicety of being multipurpose.

Downside, I'll never finish the tin of the stuff I have in the shelf!
 
Took me a bit to get a few coats down on a test piece of scrap I was using, but it went well so I went ahead with applying to the body first.

I've got one coat down on the body now and it looks pretty good.
Before:


After 1 coat:


It definitely brought the grain out in a nice way and I like the darker look.

I'm planning at least 3-4 coats on the body. Will probably start with 3 and see how it looks and feels at that point.


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One problem though, I took it off the jig I was finishing on, set it on my workbench to burnish before a second coat, and a dangling power plug lightly hit the horn of the body leaving a small dent.
It's small, and will be under the pickguard, but it's making me question the durability of this roasted swamp ash. Sure, any wood can get dented, but this was a pretty light hit from a powercord that was dangling when I was cleaning my workbench.. I wouldn't expect such a substantial dent from such a light hit.



Anyone else here had experience with dents in roasted swamp ash? I might as well leave this one be since it's under the fingerboard, but is there a different finish or something else I can do to prevent further dents?
I take pretty good care of my guitars but it's inevitable that it'll bump into something at some point and I don't want to leave more dents.
 
It looks beautiful and I might try this next time. Do you grain fill at all, or just apply without any prep?
 
yaarrr said:
Anyone else here had experience with dents in roasted swamp ash? I might as well leave this one be since it's under the fingerboard, but is there a different finish or something else I can do to prevent further dents?
I take pretty good care of my guitars but it's inevitable that it'll bump into something at some point and I don't want to leave more dents.

the best way to prevent it is a harder finish lol. that's part of why they exist, to protec
 
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