Thinning oil paint?

[PRSpoggers]

I got black and brown oil paint for wood to finish my kit guitar but they're both thick and goopy looking oil paints. I read that you can use rubbing alcohol to thin oil paint, so will that thin it and will it be able to stain without like ruining it and not showing the figuring?

[ADFinlayson]

You can thin oil paints with white spirit. I've use oil paints to stain guitars before and I wouldn't recommend it to be honest, takes forever to dry and a lot of it will come off if you do any kind of wipe on finishing - it will react with true oil, crimson finishing oil, wipe on poly (those are the 3 I've tried anyway) etc. Angelus leather dyes are very good if you want vibrant colours.

[ADFinlayson]

7 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

You can thin oil paints with white spirit. I've use oil paints to stain guitars before and I wouldn't recommend it to be honest, takes forever to dry and a lot of it will come off if you do any kind of wipe on finishing - it will react with true oil, crimson finishing oil, wipe on poly (those are the 3 I've tried anyway) etc. Angelus leather dyes are very good if you want vibrant colours.

When I said white spirit, I meant mineral spirits in your language. We don't have that readily available here so I get white spirit from my local Home depo type store

[ScottR]

Pigments are ground much coarser for paints as compared to dyes too. Paints are made to lay on top and completely hide what's underneath, and dyes, with ultra-fine pigments are meant to soak into the wood fibers and enhance them.

SR

[Bizman62]

There's two reasons to use oil paint on a guitar. Either you want it to look like your granny's house in which case you'll avoid sanding as well. Or you're a budding Rembrandt in which case you'd need some more colours than just brown and black.

I remember the experimentations of @ADFinlayson, they were hair raising scary!

 

[PRSpoggers]

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

Pigments are ground much coarser for paints as compared to dyes too. Paints are made to lay on top and completely hide what's underneath, and dyes, with ultra-fine pigments are meant to soak into the wood fibers and enhance them.

SR

so can I still use it if I thin it down?

[PRSpoggers]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

There's two reasons to use oil paint on a guitar. Either you want it to look like your granny's house in which case you'll avoid sanding as well. Or you're a budding Rembrandt in which case you'd need some more colours than just brown and black.

I remember the experimentations of @ADFinlayson, they were hair raising scary!

 

So I am going to thin it down with isopropyl alcohol, will it then be able to penetrate the wood? And will the wood grain (my guitar has a flame veneer on it) still show after thinning said paint?

[Bizman62]

12 minutes ago, PRSpoggers said:

So I am going to thin it down with isopropyl alcohol, will it then be able to penetrate the wood? And will the wood grain (my guitar has a flame veneer on it) still show after thinning said paint?

It won't work that way.

Pigments are ground solid stuff similar to sand. Many pigments actually are ground stone. There's coarse sand and fine sand and dust. No matter how much water or alcohol you add the coarse sand won't turn to dust.

Think it like corn: There's a big difference in wholegrain and sieved flour. Mixed with water one makes a mess and the other one dough. Adding more water to wholegrain doesn't make the mess bakeable.

If you thin paint so much that you can see the fancy figuration of the wood, you'd be seeing tiny coloured dots all over the surface. It would look dirty.

[ScottR]

I wouldn't, but you can if you chose to. Just don't expect stellar results.

There are really no rules in the world of building custom guitars.....other than the obvious ones affecting playabilty.  The bridge, nut and frets have to be in the correct place for the scale length. The world is your oyster in regards to finishing. It is always wise to use something suited to the effect you want. I learned my lesson on my first build.

SR

[ScottR]

18 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

It won't work that way.

Pigments are ground solid stuff similar to sand. Many pigments actually are ground stone. There's coarse sand and fine sand and dust. No matter how much water or alcohol you add the coarse sand won't turn to dust.

Think it like corn: There's a big difference in wholegrain and sieved flour. Mixed with water one makes a mess and the other one dough. Adding more water to wholegrain doesn't make the mess bakeable.

If you thin paint so much that you can see the fancy figuration of the wood, you'd be seeing tiny coloured dots all over the surface. It would look dirty.

Well said.

SR

[ADFinlayson]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

There's two reasons to use oil paint on a guitar. Either you want it to look like your granny's house in which case you'll avoid sanding as well. Or you're a budding Rembrandt in which case you'd need some more colours than just brown and black.

I remember the experimentations of @ADFinlayson, they were hair raising scary!

 

Oi I'll have you know, my oil paint stained build won GTOM  

[Bizman62]

11 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Oi I'll have you know, my oil paint stained build won GTOM

I remember that as well. Am I right to suggest, though, that you wouldn't recommend that path as the Highway to Success?