Monday 9 March 2015

Ash Stratocaster: Black Burst? Um, No.

Got more dye on to the Ash Stratocaster today. What I had intended as a black burst ended up like this. Can you see the burst? No I can't see it either.

She's much darker in real-life, but looks great through the camera!
I'm not sure what happened to the black. The wood seemed to saturate very quickly and try as I might I couldn't blend the black into the blue without obliterating it completely. I think the black just darkened the entire body in the end, although the end grain has retained quite a lot of it. The only place on the body!

Anyway, with no burst forthcoming I decided to press on and get the clear coats started. In this photo there are 3 coats of acrylic clear on the body. The ash grain is still poking through the clear coats at the moment, indicating that my Timbermate grain filling process didn't fill them entirely. No matter. To be honest, even though it means that the guitar wont be as glossy as it might be, I like seeing the ash grain pattern in the surface of the finish.

Acrylic Gloss from a Can
The acrylic clear I am using for this project is the canned variety from White Knight. In the past I have used auto acrylic and my own spray equipment, but I thought I'd give this a go. It's more expensive than the bulk auto acrylic+thinner, but it is sooo much more convenient to use. I'm seeing if I can get just as good a finish with this, including the wet-sanding and polishing. The ash grain may well defeat me in this, but we'll see. Tomorrow I'll get more acrylic clear coats on and we'll see if that pesky grain is going to fill up or not!

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