Sanded Back Flame Maple....some Figure Is Lost!?

[9956]

I stained my maple veneer the shade of red i had perfectly mixed up, then sanded back after it had dried and restained. I have lost a noticeably amount of the figure/flame...the tutorial i was following says it should enhance the flame!

http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/bridge...e_guitar02.html

Is this recoverable in any way? I have a very lightly figured maple top at the moment, if someone could tell me how to resuscitate the flame i would love it. If not then tough luck i guess....

[mikhailgtrski]

This is a veneer, right? You have to be very careful sanding veneer. How thick is it? What dye did you use and how did you mix it? Did you try it on scrap first? A picture would help.

This is about what it should look like after your sand back (pretend it's red instead of brown ): sand back

Keep in mind that it won't look really deep and 3-D until you clearcoat it. Wipe it down with naphtha if you want to get an idea of what it will look like when it's finished.

Mike

[Arseneau]

Is the look you were hoping for more like this?

If so, then the exact same thing happened to me due to the same tutorial that you noted. The problem is that there is very little contrast to speak of when you use the same colour twice (ie: red, sand back, red). I assume that that was the look he was going for in that tutorial and I chalked it up to oversight on my part.

In any case, if your problem sounds similar, then the answer is walnut brown dye (or that's the shade I used anyway, but any very dark shade of brown dye will do). You coat the top in the dark brown, sand it back using 400 grit paper after it's dry, THEN add your red, with a little yellow on top to really make the figure jump out.

Hope this helps...

EDIT: Never mind, just saw your other thread. You are obviously going for the lighter look than I was.