Leather Dye Guitar Finishing

PhilM

Hi all

I've decided to have a bash at building my own Partscaster (essentially a replica of my 1995 Strat), starting with an unfinished ash body from Guitarbuild.co.uk.

I'd like to dye the body using Angelus leather dyes and have tested blue, black and purple on the scrap provided by GB before deciding on the blue. The intention (unless anyone tells me otherwise) is to finish the body with Osmo PolyX - which is what I'm lead to believe Wudtone is made from. I assume this will fill the grain to some extent - assuming the guff about Wudtone doing this was true?

My questions really are around the prep work. The body is already sanded to 320, so do I need to further prep before applying the dye? Once the dye is on do I go over it with 0000 steel wool before applying the PolyX or is that not really required? The PolyX seems happy to go over wood sanded at 320/400.

This guy rates it, and produced a shootout of the different methods of applying it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Rp65DAarE

Thanks in advance

Evilmags

I've got a massive ash floor done with Osmo poly X. It's good stuff but won't do shine much. 

PhilM

Evilmags said:

I've got a massive ash floor done with Osmo poly X. It's good stuff but won't do shine much. 

They do 4 different sheens - Matt, Semi-Matt, Satin and Gloss. Not after a high-gloss finish anyway. 

Sarge

I'll be watching this, I bought a sample sachet of the osmo poly and not tried it yet. 

Jez6345789

Once I worked out that that Wudtone was essentially poly ox I did a number of bodies with it and necks mostly as it stopped costing me 25 quid for a tiny pot that seemed to just about cover if your wood was not to thirsty. 

You can colour the poly ox using oil paint pigment, that was windsor and Newton primary red or cardinal red you can also add about 30-50% of oil based varnish for doing necks or things where you want a thin hard finish. 

Once its dry and to get it to the point where you can really buff it you are talking 4-6 weeks I have used the burnishing with paper and also Meguire scratch x or a fine rubbing compound from Halfords. This was before it go the final smooth out with Megs

If the wood is already sanded to 320 I might run a similar paper over to rough it a bit further and wipe it down before starting but from my experience it works better on a less sanded finish. I used to religiously go through the grades when I first started but once you go past 400 it seems to adhere less. You can also do an undercoat as I did with this in white to keep the colour strong or get closer to the effect of a solid colour that does not show the wood grain through which this was a test  for really. 

Jez6345789

Forgot to say you only need to do the wire wool after the dye if the wood is the that raises the grain with the dye. If the dye is spirit based then its probably not an issue. 

PhilM

Excellent, thanks for that. I might make a start tomorrow then

PhilM

Well, that seems to have worked out OK. Basically, I applied the dye, rubbed it in hard and then lightly wiped over it with a cloth soaked in IPA. This has thinned the colour out on the top, but left the sunken grain purple. Looks fantastic but tricky to photograph. Only issue is that this has highlighted some small circles from the machine sanding process that I hadn't spotted. I'm a bit reluctant to to sand the front back though in case in ruins the effect. As it stands, its OK but I'm concerned that the PolyX will only highlight these swirls further.

lee

The blue one is stunning

PhilM

Couple more in direct sunlight. Black pickguard is just something I had lying around. Not sure if final one will be black or parchment - with or without extra pickup holes.

WezV

If you wanna get those sanding marks, now is your only chance

PhilM

WezV said:

If you wanna get those sanding marks, now is your only chance

Thought that might be the case. Do I need to buy a random orbital sander? The sanding marks look like chains of individual circles, if that makes sense?

WezV

I would hand sand at this point.

PhilM

Thanks, that's a little cheaper Back to 320?

WezV

It will need to go back to whichever  grade left the marks.  I would go back to 180 ish and work back up.  Sand with the grain at all times

PhilM

Cheers

PhilM

Went back through 180/220/320 and re-stained. Think it looks better for it, and all the swirls are now gone. Lesson learned for next time