Finishing a piece one side at a time: Preventing overlap/drip

[Ralph Brown]

This is my first post, and it's quite basic. I've finished various things before (mostly guitar necks and table tops) using tung oil varnish, Tru-Oil, poly, and shellac, but am about to start on a more complicated piece. I lack a spray setup, so I wipe everything on. Because the first step with this piece will be dyeing the grain, I can't simply apply a layer of finish and sand it down if it doesn't work like I would normally do when learning, so in the interest of precaution and not botching the piece with a blotchy stain, I'm appealing to you.

The piece in question is a walnut guitar body which I'm almost finished shaping and drilling. The plan is to apply black TransTint (diluted in water), seal with a couple light coats of dewaxed garnet shellac, then apply poly because I fear the shellac wouldn't stand up to the friction of my arm resting on it all the time. I'll be dyeing and sealing scrap walnut to get the color right before I work on the main piece.

The thing I worry about is achieving a consistent shade of dye across the entire piece. Hanging isn't really an option for me, and I don't think it would make sense for a wipe-on finish anyway, so I'll be working on a tabletop. If that's the case, what do I do to prevent drippage down the sides when working on the front or back? How do I finish the sides themselves? Do I need to prop the piece 90 degrees and only dye parts of the sides that are accessible, then rotate and take care of the rest? The body is basically a classic "strat" shape, so it isn't as simple as refinishing a typical acoustic.

I realize a spray setup would be most appropriate for what I'm doing, but I know this is doable by hand because I've seen what others have achieved. I just apparently lack the common sense or the confidence to take this on at the moment without a little advice from you first.

[Steve Schoene]

First, do not use TransTint. No matter what you dilute it with initially, it still remains soluble in alcohol and the shellac you propose to apply with redissolve the dye and likely end up with streaks. I would use a powdered water soluble dye such as TransFast or dye from Lockwood. (Why dye walnut black--I really like walnut color--just a personal preference.)

Water soluble dye is best applied by flooding it on with a sponge--saturating the surface so you will have covered the entire surface before it dries on the surface. Start from the bottom, so that dye that runs down only runs onto surfaces already wet with the dye and can just be wiped off with the damp sponge making no blotch. Something as small as a guitar should be able to be fully covered before the dye dries. When you flood on dye, the concentration of the dye determines the depth of color so you don't have to apply the dye slowly. Do wipe off puddles.

I would use a non-poly varnish instead of poly.

[John TenEyck]

Transtint works the same as TransFast as long as you either use an OB sealer or finish over it or spray over it. So I would use either one, and apply it the way Steve described. But then I would use a spray finish. There are many spray finishes available in rattle cans that should do a good job for you. But if you want to use a wiping finish TruOil, Arm-R-Seal, any oil based finish would work over either dye w/o making it bleed.

John

[Ralph Brown]

I'm going to forgo the dye this time and save it for a future project when I hopefully have a more appropriate setup. I'll keep it simple this time around. Thanks to both of you.