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Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Les Paul Florentine: Sanding & Raising the Grain

Got some sanding on the Florentine done today. Started with 180 on the sides and back to try to remove some of the original machining/sanding marks. Still not sure I got all the suckers - end grain really is a bitch.  Moved on to 240 and then finally 360. After one go round with 360 it was time to raise the grain with methylated spirits and then another pass with 360 to knock it down again.



On the front I began with 240 and then moved to 360. The grain was raised with methylated spirits here too, but I made sure that the sanding was much lighter - I really don't want to sand through the veneer! The result is pretty smooooth.

Now that I've sanded to 360, there is just 400 and 600 grits to go before the Colortone dye can be applied. For each grit I will repeat the grain raising procedure. I'm still not sure what colour combo to throw at this bad boy. My current thinking is a blue top, with a darker colour (blue, black, blue+black?) in the initial trace dyes to allow the quilted maple figure to pop as much as possible. For the sides and back the jury is still out. I'm not sure whether to go for wine red / mahogany or maybe even go for an almost natural colour - maybe just Tru-Oil to accentuate the grain. Whatever I do to the back and sides will also have to be done to the neck and headstock. Hmm decisions..

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