"smooth" Satin Finish

[Daniel Sorbera]

ok so I have a takamine nautraul series that has a very "smooth" satin finish on it that looks beautiful. I am building a swamp ash strat that I want that same smoothness on. How would I go about getting this? So I just need to tung oil it(in which case I wouldent fill the grain). Or do I need to fill the grain and spray somekind of satin finish on it? something such as this? thanks alot

[skibum5545]

There are a couple options. Tung oil is one, but you'd have -very- defined grain, both visible and noticeable to the touch when playing. If that's cool, then go for it!

Otherwise, you want to fill the grain with epoxy, and there are plenty of threads showing how, and then do a clear lacquer coat. That stuff you showed will work, as will Duplicolor clears from auto shops. Even wipe on products work well. A compromise product that I like the look and feel of is Waterlox, a tung-oil based hard finish that you wipe on.

Tung oil will have a very different feel from any spray, and will have different maintenance characteristics. If you're cool with it, go for it; it worked great on my walnut bass I built, and I love the natural feel. It's all up to you.

[Dugz Ink]

Here's a coll article I found this afternoon about Understanding Wood Finishes. It's not the end all, and it doesn't specifically address satin finishes, but it does have some simple but helpful information about tung oil.

I've had my best success with Gillespie's "tung oil"... which had some hardeners added to it... but nobody seems to carry it anymore. It would soak in a build up, and it really strengthened the wood. I have some incredible looking gunstocks that I finished with that stuff, and you do NOT feel any woodgrain; most of them are smoother than glass.

Meanwhile, the Behr "tung oil" that I just bought has too much linseed oil in it, and I can't get the $%^&*#@ stuff to dry; several days later, it's still just a sticky greasy mess. It might be great for building a boat, but I'm not building 25.5" scale boat. (I really hate wasting money!)

I've read several articles that recommend Waterlox, another tung oil based product. One article mentioned Gillespie's, and all of the things that I liked about Gillespie's, and then said that Waterlox is even better, so that's what I'm going to try next.

If you go with an "oil" finish, I strongly recommend putting on the oil, letting it set up, down sanding the finish, applying another coat of oil, and so on, until you don't feel the grain anymore. Then apply another coat, rub it down with 0000 steel wool, then hit it with some wax. That will give you a satin-like finish that really shows off everything the wood has to offer.

However, there's probably a faster/easier way to do it with spray finishes.

D~s

[Jehle]

For satin finishes, I've had good luck with a can of Minwax Polyurethane (satin finish of course). It comes in both water based clear and oil based. I've not used the water based before, but as legend has it, it's supposed to be more clear. The oil based finish tends to slightly yellow. I like the extra yellow tint so I use that.

I have used both brush and spray applications with the Minwax and both are good.

To get a good satin finish, I would wet sand with as much as 1000 or 1200 grit paper and skip the final polishing step. I have done this on about three different necks so far and it looks and feels really good!

[Daniel Sorbera]

thanks for the link dugz ink, I have prety much decided to go with tung oil...