Staining Puzzle

[guitarmonky55]

ok it was broguht to my attention in another thread that two adjacent colored stains on a thin maple veneer will bleed together. im wanting to do an american flag stain job on my rr v with a flamed maple top. ive been thinking about ways to do it and wanted to see if these sound like they would work...

1)start with one color, say red, and seal off the blue/white(im leaving natural) sections with stewmac sanding sealer. apply the stain and then remove the sealer, seal the red, stain the blue, then seal it all and apply clear coats.

or

2)apply a thin coat of either lacquer or sealer, and stain on top of that. im using stew mac concentrate dies, so if i did this would alcohol or water for the base be better?

do those sound reasonable? i plan on testing the method on scraps of my veneer before attacking the guitar definitely. any help is greatly appreciated

[x189player]

one way this is done is to scribe fine lines in the wood, then stain will not bleed much from one area to another. this is done as a sort of 'mock inlay', often to create faux parquet patterns in wood floors and the like.

i've done this and can recommend the technique, but i'd suggest doing a test pattern first to get the knack of scribing the lines, applying stain, etc. YOu need to have a feeling for how delicate and detailed a design you can do- there's a limit to the detail you can scribe, also how fine a line of stain you can apply without bleed.

[Blueroomstudios]

Is this how Ibanez did their RG ART series of guitars? They have a flame maple tops with different color stained geometric shapes on them.

[guitarmonky55]

im not looking for anything terribly complicated, my stripes are going to be about 1-1.5 inches thick probably, as im doing a corner of the flag where the stars meet the stripes, and the flag is going to have the appearance of waving.

so how would i go about doing this, and how deep? would just a plain x-acto blade work?

[x189player]

plain xacto works ok. i like to make two cuts, to make a v-shaped groove, rather than a single line. But like i say, you want to practice this first before going carving lines in your guitar.

[Doc]

If I was goining to do this I would use colored finish.

You still can get some bleed through unless you cut your channels deeper than the stain will penetrate. One way to skin this one would be to cut your v grooves. Stain the lightest color first. Seal it. Stain your darker colors in sequence sealing each. Use a semi-paste wood filler tinted to match one color or another to fill in your channels and develop a crisp edge, Seal and finish.

Lots of work but it should work and look neat.

If it works out post a picture 'cause it does suggset some interesting possibilities.

[guitarmonky55]

sounds like a plan! gotta wait for my stains in the mail from stewmac but ill get pics of it as it progresses.

ive done a finish before, this is my first time, so forgive this noobish question: i can add my stain colors to the grain filler that i would use to fill in the grooves with so it matches correct?

and even though this is a maple top, when i go about lacquering it, should i still give it a pass with grain filler overtop for a really level surface so it gleams when im all done?

[Doc]

As long as the solvents/thinners are compatible I don't see any reason why not. Furniture makers tint their fillers to all kinds of colors. Like a navy blue stain on oak and then fill with say a red filler. The big grain pores in oak or ash allow an interesting contrast.

Take a small amount of your filler and do a test board. Make sure it will dry okay. That would be my main worry.

Use neutral colored filler to start with.

Also shoot the stuff with a top coat of finish on the test to make sure that that works too.