@tej

Best person to ask is @boo he’s the finishing expert

@boo do you have any info or pics that you’d care to share, especially anything that’s not too extreme please?
I don’t actually have the highlights to hand yet so I’ve no idea what I’ll even get as it was a bit of a whim. Could be great big flakes or more like dust!

I don’t actually have the highlights to hand yet so I’ve no idea what I’ll even get as it was a bit of a whim. Could be great big flakes or more like dust!

@tej At the moment, I have no frame of reference. What do you want to achieve? Are you painting a guitar body? What do you mean by highlights? 
I just need to understand the job/project in question, then I can see if I can help. Cheers 👍 

@boo sorry, distinct lack of information on my part partly out of my own ignorance in terms of what I’ve ordered. As I understand it’ll be very small flecks of metal, supposedly giving a metallic effect. Northern bit that interested me was when the idea of “gilting” the curves of the guitar was mentioned so as to essentially accentuate them. But the description also talks of embedding them in the grain which could be nice or could go irreversibly horribly wrong. Only pictures I have for reference are these but really video or multiple angles are needed to truly see what effect is achieved, look at the highlights section:   https://www.wudtone.com/finishing-diy-kits/

It’s the body of the guitar I was thinking of using this for. Anyway, if any of that makes sense, would appreciate any thoughts, if not then no worries as I appreciate I’m being pretty vague here and I’ll just carve some scraps and do some testing!

As I understand it’ll be very small flecks of metal, supposedly giving a metallic effect. Northern bit that interested me was when the idea of “gilting” the curves of the guitar was mentioned so as to essentially accentuate them. But the description also talks of embedding them in the grain which could be nice or could go irreversibly horribly wrong. Only pictures I have for reference are these but really video or multiple angles are needed to truly see what effect is achieved

@tej Yeah it looks like you can either fill the grain for a flatter finish or don’t fill it for a more natural wood look. Either way you would get a slight metallic appearance but I don’t know how much the effect differs from using metallic paint or flake (if anything it seems more subtle than the stuff I normally use). I haven’t used this application before so I should probably try it out before attempting to give any advice. I’m assuming the highlights are applied into the grain before the topcoat is applied. I’ll look at it some more. 👍 

@boo yeah I think a few tests are required for sure!

In terms of prep for finishing I’ve seen a few videos suggesting an approach of

1. Vacuum with brush
2. Wipe down with clean cloth
3. Wipe again with a tack cloth, apparently a cloth impregnated with bees wax
4. Wipe down with denatured alcohol 

What’s your go to approach for ensuring you’re rid of all dust traces?

What’s your go to approach for ensuring you’re rid of all dust traces?

@tej Well, my argument for compressed air comes into play again. Every workshop, no matter what you make, should have a compressor. 

When you have finished sanding a piece of wood, it should be dusted off to remove the majority of waste. Then use a blow gun from the compressor and the vacuum nozzle from the shop vac to remove dust from the grain. Wipe down with some panel wipe (alcohol) to make sure the piece is clean. Check over it all and repeat the whole process if needed and then wipe over with a tack rag.

That is my standard dust clearing process. This comes from my time spent spraying cars, vans, trucks, bikes etc so the substrate is metal but the principle is the same for other substrates such as wood. Just don’t have your air pressure too high for wood though, it can lift and damage it in places. 

Hope this helps. 👍

@tej This Tele is Ash and as you know it has an open grain. The grain needs to be filled and sanded flat if you want to achieve a gloss mirror finish or a smooth, flat matt effect. You may have to go through the filling and sanding process two or three times before you have filled every wood pore. On this one I sprayed a poly clear over the grain filled Ash to get that mirror finish. I’ve included a few pics of it because the camera was struggling to focus on the guitar as the reflection in it is so clear, it was trying to focus on that too. There is no point trying to get a high gloss without grain filling, it doesn’t work. I didn’t put any colour on this one, I just wanted the natural colour of the wood. The front top is Spalted Maple. 

@Boo that looks amazing man!

@boo thank you for the advice, I don’t have an air compressor to hand not the money to buy one right now, not the space for another big tool. What would be the lowest spec worth parting with money for? 

I’m presuming I can just melt grated bees wax into a cloth to make a tack rag?

The Tele, ah man, simply stunning work, you must have been so proud of how that came out!?

Is it obvious to the naked eye when you’ve filled every pore?

@boo other think I meant to ask is that I have some Isopropanol alcohol but not any denatured alcohol which seems to be suggested is best, what’s your experience?

Thanks lads, I’ll be back soon. Just need to nip out. 

Only pictures I have for reference are these but really video or multiple angles are needed to truly see what effect is achieved, look at the highlights section:   https://www.wudtone

@Tej - I used to use those products, but moved away from them some years ago after some "inconsistent" results.  It can work well, but it can also not work well at all!

Really depends on what sort of effect you want to achieve, but I've had fair success using the Crimson coloured grain filler products;

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/grain-enhancing-filler

It's really easy to use - just rub on/in, leave to dry and then rub off the excess, leaving the grain filled with little flecks of colour.  Then apply finish of choice over the top.  I used gold filler on a mahogany body, which I then stained red.

This one is quite a subtle effect because it was my first time and I erred on the side of subtlety rather than bling!

This one is quite a subtle effect because it was my first time and I erred on the side of subtlety rather than bling!

@tv101 I do like this guitar because of the slightly off level grain, the colour and how subtle you have done everything, oh and the trick with the scratch plate. It’s a beaut! 👍

Cheers @Boo.

I acquired that as a carcass, so I just added the hardware and the finishing.  Plays lovely.

👍

@tv101 so far the inconsistency is only down to the wood prep and colour. I sanded too finely which hasn’t helped the dye take. The fresh scrap test I did is a a lovely blue but my guitar is more of a green. That might be a problem for some but I like it more than the colour it was supposed to be!! Much of the change I think comes from it not being a very light wood to start with, possibly!!

Anyway, plan now is the deep colour coats, base colour coats, silver highlights, glossy top coat mixed with grain filler to get a smoother finish. The last two I’ll do on the test piece first though!!

@tej - one of the reasons that I moved away from it is because it is very susceptible to any inconsistencies with the wood, the preparation of the wood, and the application of the product.  I basically got fed up of starting again, and found products that were more predictable (ie, not predictably inconsistent).

but I like it more than the colour it was supposed to be!!

Then that's a good result this time!!

found products that were more predictable

@tv101 what did you change to? The main reason I went with this is as I don’t need spray equipment. Have to say the results I had previously were excellent too, that was on to bass wood but indeed would be nicer to “know” the outcome to a certain degree upfront.