Walnut & Mahogany - Tru-oil?

[Azrael]

Hey, I've been meticulously planning a neck through build with Walnut and Mahogany. The neck would be a 5-piece, using Mahogany-Maple-Walnut-Maple-Mahogany. The wings would would either be mahogany, or be walnut. I say this because I'm trying to decide if I should use a book matched claro walnut top or let that bad ass 5-piece show through. If I had the Walnut top, the wings would be mahogany. No top, the wings would be walnut.

Anyway, my main questions being:

1 - How will these woods take a heritage cherry kind of stain? The walnut will be significantly darker, right?

2 - I'm planning to use an oil finish, either tung oil or tru-oil. Someone told me that walnut doesn't react well to sunlight, with an oil finish, and discolors. Is this true?

3 - What brand of Tru-oil or tung-oil do you guys use? I'm looking for something no additives.

[Ripthorn]

Tru-oil is a brand name finish from Birchwood Casey and I am pretty sure it is a polymerized oil with additives. Also, stains don't work too well under tru-oil, dyes such as aniline dyes work best from what I understand. The walnut would be darker, it's true. My question is why you would want to put a cherry stain on a wood like walnut? As for the walnut discoloration, I have never had discolorations, but I don't really expose any of my walnut stuff to enough sunlight to know.

[Azrael]

Oh, okay. I had no idea that tru-oil was like that. It was recommended to me, when i was discussing oiled finishes.

As far as cherry stain, I dunno, just think a red guitar looks awesome.

But that makes sense, I haven't seen a lot of oil-finished guitars with stains...

And the additives would be more directed to the tru-oil portion of the question, anyway. I have a can of tung oil, but found out there's varnishes and stuff mixed in. I'd like to try the real thing.

Edited September 6, 2008 by Azrael

[Quarter]

Tru Oil is really more like a varnish than a strait oil. I've used a lot of it and its one of my all time favorite finishes.

I've not used it over a pigmented stain, no problem with dyes though. You could test on a piece of scrap first and or do a quick shellac sealer coat over the top first.

[killemall8]

real pure tung oil is not something to mess with. there are varnishes mixed in yours because thats whats needed for it to actaully dry. pure tung oil wont dry. ever.

[!!METAL MATT!!]

I just finished my purpleheart and black walnut 8 string in tru oil and it came out Great and the walnut looks clean and clear with no dark spots

[Azrael]

whoa man, that looks great!

i'm slowly leaning towards just using a tru-oil finish, no stain at all. a lot of the finishes I've seen look incredible.