water decal

[Krincabeche]

I'm thinking about applying a water decal on my headstock... my neck is raw so I would like to know if its possible to apply water decal on a raw headstock and live it raw... is the water decal to fragil to be left without finish on it?

 

[SkuttleFunk]

you should have applied sanding sealer as a minimum before applying the decal. by nature, the water slide decal needs a non-porus surface to stick to and a finish on top of it to protect it once it's dried

all the best,

R

 

[-CB-]

You dont say what wood it is...

You might want to grab a can of deft semi gloss, and some aerosol shellac (bullseye).

You can use shallac to coat the headstock front (mask the rest of the neck you dont want shellac'd).  Sand it back a little with 320 grit and do that a few times until its smooth.  Shellac dries quickly... but like lacquer needs some shrink in tmie - but not nearly as much.  Let it shrink in a few days.  Sand back the final smooth headstock with some 400 grit, and give it one more shellac spray - light coat is all you need.  Then, after a day, apply the decal.  Let it dry a day!  We dont want water to get into the shellac (any more than we have to).  Then give it another light shellac coat.  Do not sand.  Let it dry a day.  One more light shellac coat... do not sand.  Let it dry a day.  Then one or two coats of the semi gloss lacquer over that.

What you've done is used the shellac as a bit of filler, then a sealer, applied the decal to that, and sealed the top of the decal with shellac (two coats).  Then the lacquer ... two coats as a protective clear finish.  Lacquer on a decal... has a good chance of making the decal do a resemblance to a dead spider.

The semi gloss Deft is quite matte finish, but no texture.  Its flat and dull.  The matte Deft is similar but has texture, and you probably dont want that.... so semi gloss is good for this.

 

[Krincabeche]

thanks! it's a goncalo alves neck...

 

[-CB-]

ah goncalo... hmm...

Here's an issue.  Deeper grained woods, like goncalo, are gonna leave little "spaces" of air under the decal, and those are gonna show whitish on the decal.

The way to get around it, is to really fill in the grain so its dead level.  If you have any grain filler, you might want to use that first, instead of all the shellac, then just a top coat of shellac on the filler.  Apply decal, another two coats of shellac over the decal, and a bit of spray to finish it all off.