Jump to content

Finishing! Crackling


Recommended Posts

After searching Lowes, Home Depot, department stores (eg:Wal-Mart), craft/hobby shops, and various paint stores (no kidding!), the only place I could find crackle lacquer was Michaels. It's going for about $6.50/can here.

Be forewarned: the crackle is FRAGILE. It MUST be top-coated. The problem is that the ceackle is really thick, so a LOT of finish will be needed to level it out and get it nice & smooth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After searching Lowes, Home Depot, department stores (eg:Wal-Mart), craft/hobby shops, and various paint stores (no kidding!), the only place I could find crackle lacquer was Michaels. It's going for about $6.50/can here.

Be forewarned: the crackle is FRAGILE. It MUST be top-coated. The problem is that the ceackle is really thick, so a LOT of finish will be needed to level it out and get it nice & smooth.

Luckily for me there are many Michaels stores around here on Long Island! Thanks! Can you tell me the brand name? If you recall?

Thanks again,

Joe

PS yep many many top coats but thats fine with me to get the look! I'm guessing I'm looking at probab;y 25+ coats ( aerosol ) of clear to sand a smooth finish. I was not too happy that the older Kramer guitars you could feel the crackle under the top coats... even though most were not expensive guitars anyway they sure looked cool!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember the specific brand name, but I do remember they only had one brand. I feel lucky to have found it at all, so the lack of choice doesn't bother me too much.

I'm going to guess that you're going to use rattle cans of finish because you don't have a spray gun. Before you get a zillion cans of finish @$5-$6 each, check out the end of my Exotic Tele Thread. I used spray lacquer for the body & neck with great results. There was an issue with the neck, so when I got the replacement, I tried brush-on lacquer. It's a dang-site less expensive than spray cans, and given the properties of lacquer, I figured it was worth a try. Wait and see how the brush-on buffs out. I should be getting to it this weekend.

The reasons I'm suggesting this are twofold: cost & application. As I already said, it's a LOT cheaper than cans. A quart was $10, as opposed to a few ounces in a can for $5-$6. Second, it brushed on a lot thicker than the spray cans per coat, so it built up faster. I didn't figure thicker coats were a big issue because of (again) the nature of lacquer.

If the brush-on works out for me, I'd give it a try for the top coat. If it doesn't, then you've waited a week for the potential of saving a lot of money on spray cans. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...