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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Going to leave it now until the morning. The one thing I might do for the aesthetics is bring the heel transition further into the body - although playing-wise it actually feels fine right up to the 24th fret on the bass strings. These things are best left to gestate a while.
With my way of varnishing, it's done when it looks done Might be tomorrows coat, might be five or six. I'll see how it goes.
It's one of a number of things I wonder why they didn't / don't incorporate on the original, much that I regard that as a masterpiece
It's good old-fashioned Ronseal Hardglaze. It's their original polyurethane varnish. They've had to reformulate in recent years to reduce the volatiles but it remains pretty high volatiles, which I'm sure will be an issue in the longer term. But comparing Hardglaze with even some of the better low-volatile brush-on paints and varnishes are still like comparing chalk and cheese.
This is my own lightweight 6 string and @impmann 's Alembicesque. Mine is Osmo Polyx Gloss - and don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of Osmo - and Tim's is Ronseal Hardglaze. The woods for the body are identical - both built from the same plank!
So while I understand and support the push towards low volatiles, I will personally be using Hardglaze until legislation tells me I can't.
Hopefully, they will eventually develop a decent low volatile gloss varnish - after all, it only took them twenty years to develop a low wattage lightbulb that didn't shine green...
The top...hmmm...close:
There's a couple of small (and inconspicuous) areas where it will probably polish up when it's fully hardened. While I could do another coat, I don't actually want it to end up too thick.
I'll have a look in the morning when it will be hard enough to handle properly so I can see where the light catches it and decide then
Thanks
I'm hoping not. Just need to see what happens to the couple of places once the finish shrinks down. No great shakes if it needs another light coat (I usually end up doing 3 to 5) but usually the 'just one more' ends up as about 3 more
I'm going to let this cure for another day or two before I make the final judgement on whether the next stage is to polish (which will be after a week or two of curing) or a final 2000 grit flattening and a couple of final, final coats.
The reason for that judgement (and I have to make it every time I do gloss this way) is that you can't - in fact you mustn't - buff this type of poly varnished finish as you would with, say, nitro spray. The reason is that each application of nitro and similar, melt into the previous dry coats. This type of poly varnish doesn't. Each cured layer is a distinct layer. So if you buff - cutting through layers, you expose the under layers and you can get unsightly contour marks.
But you can polish a poly varnish done this way. The polishing works on the final coat - it smooths minor lumps and bumps, dust buggies, light brush ridges. It needs to be rock hard before you do that otherwise even this risks cutting through to underneath layers.
Either way, I can get on with finishing the rest of it, because if I do a final flattening and a couple of light top coats, it needs at least a week hardening first anyway.
It's very close though and so this may not need anything more than the final polish.
This is always a decent test:
I never worry about the finish sinking into the grain - I think that actually enhances the organic feel - but there are a couple of non-grain lumps and bumps that - again - may polish out or might need flattening.
But, whatever, this is going to end up as eyecatching as I had hoped at the beginning The obligatory mockups
So while that's curing, next focus is oil and buffing the neck, levelling and crowning the frets and positioning and fitting the tuners