Clearcoat Over Walnut, Help!

[Sethmetal]

Allright, so my friend and I are building a neck through out of mahogany with a Walnut top.

I have never cleared over either type of wood, so I need some suggestions and things to look out for.

I hear that walnut can be oily. Any recomendations on how to handle that?

How about grain fillers for both woods, anything I can pick up at the local hardware store would be nice.

SO I imagine I will have to grain fill, then seal, then clear...is that correct?

Thanks for the help.

[Hunter]

You can use Epoxy to grainfill the wood, and then use some sanding sealer to prep it for the clearcoat.

So yeah, you're correct, fill, seal, clear.

[jnewman]

Walnut's not oily... it's really easy to work with and glue. Actually, it's a pleasure to work with - it responds REALLY well to hand tools.

[westhemann]

yeah...walnut is not oily at all.it is one of the easiest woods to cut and glue.it does have large pores though,so you do need to fill the grain if you want a flat finish.

i use walnut very commonly as laminates in a neck.

[Mattia]

Walnut does really nicely with a bit of a 'warm up' from some nice amber/orange shellac or similar. IMO. It can look a tad cold otherwise.

[Doc]

Walnut is probably the most rewarding wood to start out with once you get past the cost.

You probably will need to hit it with some stain, 'cause I agree with Mattia that modern walnut is a little bland and cold without some help.

If you can get some Behlen Solar-lux or something similar, hit it with something with just a touch of red or orange, like American Walnut.Or even a Light Brown

Mahogany.

Oh yeah, if you get any splinters dig them right out. A lot of people react badly to them. And wear a dust mask when sanding the wood. It's not as nasty as ebony but it is an irritant.

[Sethmetal]

Walnut is probably the most rewarding wood to start out with once you get past the cost.

You probably will need to hit it with some stain, 'cause I agree with Mattia that modern walnut is a little bland and cold without some help.

If you can get some Behlen Solar-lux or something similar, hit it with something with just a touch of red or orange, like American Walnut.Or even a Light Brown

Mahogany.

Oh yeah, if you get any splinters dig them right out. A lot of people react badly to them. And wear a dust mask when sanding the wood. It's not as nasty as ebony but it is an irritant.

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Good to know. Thanks.

As far as adding some color, woudl the stew mac stains do the trick? I already have some reds from them.

Now I'm kinda excited to get working with the stuff. I though ti would be a pain since you don't see it all that often.

[Doc]

The Stew-mac stuff should work great. Thin it down a whole bunch "cause you don't need a whole lot of color, just some toning.

There are a ton of walnut acoustics out there.

I personally play a walnut Tele knock off most of the time. It has an oil finished face and and the back and sides are satin nitro.