Scratches

[wierdOne]

If i'm going to use a black dye (and try to get it as dark as possible).. will scratches show through ?

I know the answers probably yes... Last night i spent 3 hours scraping and sanding off the wood grain filler. (i figured out that when someone says to clean off the excess... it means to clean off the excess... not leave a millimeter thick coat on the whole guitar.... don't ask..) .. and afterwards i spent a good hour or two sanding all of the dings and scratches i put in the wood during that process... i've got most of them out, but surrounding the area where the strap button is going (at the base of the guitar) are some scratches... i ran out of sand paper... i know i keep asking newbie questions.. and for this i am sorry... it's just... I really have no clue what i'm doing..

[Southpa]

It depends on what purpose you have with using the black dye. If you are doing the dye black/sand back routine to just enhance the grain then you should keep the dye away from end grain areas, like where your strap button is located. Those spots will just suck up the dye and to sand it back to clear wood again will result in a slightly shorter guitar.

To avoid scratches and dings I place the guitar on a large old beach towel when working on it. You basically have to start with aggressive sanding using 80 grit and then work down to finer grits like 120, 180, 220 and lastly 320. Its important to NOT skip a sanding stage because those deeper scratches, nicks and dents won't go away very fast if you jump from 120 to 320. After the 80 grit sanding stage you have to handle your project with kid gloves. Don't let anyone else touch it either!