Bizman62

You never know until you've tried. You can somewhat test the compatibility by mixing the Danish with the poly. If they mix and stay mixed without making layers like water and oil in a glass it's a good starting point. Some scrap piece testing after the mixing test is recommendable. As I may have mentioned I've used the Crimson Guitar Finishing Oil that comes in two variations: Penetrative and fast buildup. It's basically similar stuff to Danish, the difference between the two versions is the amount of poly. So if the poly you found is compatible with the Danish you can easily control the amount of buildup. Getting a glossy finish with brushed poly only isn't easy as the brush strokes will show. A wipe on/wipe off oil finish is much easier to get level. As this seems to be a long process with the long curing/drying times and testing various finishings, I'd still recommend waiting for the drier season. In the meantime there's plenty testing to do. You don't want a guitar where the finish peels off during the first year!

Just for clarification: Are all the pieces of equal thickness and is this going to look similar on both sides? I read you're going to use epoxy so structural integrity should not be a problem. All that said, that looks simply stunning!

Just had to...

If you're not in a hurry, I'd say wait for another day or longer. Oils don't actually 'dry', they 'cure' which is why you have to wipe the excess off twice. The oil sort of reacts with the cells of wood which makes the surface hard. Here's some good reading about Danish Oil and humidity: https://www.thewoodworkplace.com/danish-oil-not-drying/ According to that 14 hours is far from enough in a humidity of 75%. The perfect solution would be to wait until the climate gets drier in your whereabouts. Looking at Wikipedia it seems it's much drier there in January. That first layer of oil will protect the project from getting dirty while waiting so your work hasn't been in vain.

It depends on the temperature and humidity. If a piece of paper (towel or newspaper/copying paper) doesn't get greasy when you wipe the guitar with it, you should be good to give it another coat. For spreading the oil you can also use fine steel wool (which can be messy as it may leave tiny steel fibres all over) or sanding mesh or wet'n'dry sandpaper. That will create a slurry which will act as a pore filler. If you choose that route be careful around the blonde stripes as the dark slurry may make the stripes look dirty. A razor blade used as a scraper should clean those nicely, though. It will also scrape the oil off so reapplying clean oil over scraped areas is required.

Hmm... Interesting! That sure gives another opportunity to dampen the tuner side of the strings. I'd call that a diddley bow with steroids!

Nice choice for the truss rod end cover! When I looked at your offcuts I thought that a spot where the colour streaks are sort of miniaturized would be nice. You seem to have found such a spot.

I must agree! @Armaan has clearly done his homework not to mention he hasn't been hesitant to ask if in doubt. The progress reminds me of that of @ADFinlayson!

Congrats! Well earned, although I'm starting to think that you're more "pro" than the other contestants, thus having an advantage! Kidding aside, there's a big gap between you and the builders who only show up for the contest without any building stories or other contact with the community. Great job!

Why brass? Agreed, it's easier to file teethy than steel, but steel would have the same strength with thinner walls. Something else that I don't know?

I was thinking about the strumming arm and the fingers holding a pick. Shouldn't be too difficult to build a slightly angled padded rod for an arm with a loosely swiveled paw at the end.

Wow! All those different tonewoods just have to provide a rich sound! She's pretty!

Fixed cracks save precious wood so it's an ecological choice saving the planet! Good job!

All superlatives already used... What I started thinking is, does it ever happen that a piece falls off of your initials in the volute? Do you reinforce it other than with the finish you're using elsewhere?

In fabric industry the Martindale test is common practice and it sure isn't performed by hand! The testers are built to test several small spots so they're not what you are looking for. Burrow use this simple machine among others, wouldn't you think that would do the trick on guitars? Looks like something @curtisa could build from the leftovers of his strumming machine!

You can use the Danish, for the fretboard a couple of layers should suffice. Apply plenty, apply more where it seems to suck in right away. When all the wood is properly oiled wipe all the excess off and wipe clean again after ten minutes. Whoa! There's lemon/citrus oil that's pressed out of citrus peels. It's used for heavy duty cleaners like GooGone. Used on a guitar it could even dissolve your glue joints!

A lot depends on the grain of the wood. For smooth woods like maple a few coats may well suffice - think about gunstocks for example. Walnut is a bit coarser, with deeper grain. With a few coats only you'd still see the gaps. Remember, when using oils you'll have to wipe most everything off! That leaves only a fraction of a millimeter of buildup per pass. Even though there's some solids (=Poly) in the Danish Oil, it's still an oil finish. That looks like a good choice and most likely better than the lemon oil. Did you know that 'lemon oil' for guitars is basically a drop of mineral oil, lots of mineral spirit or naphta and some lemon scent? There's also 'pure' lemon/citrus oils that are very effective cleaners and not suitable for guitars at all!!! For a new fingerboard I'd rather use pure BLO. The hydrates and lemon oils are more like cleaners that can somewhat maintain the lustre of the surface.

I like it too. As long as we can't change the design of the player, there's certain aspects in the guitar to take into account - balance, weight, contours etc. Your new body looks like like you've thought about all of these. The influences can be seen but you haven't gone where the fence is the lowest.

I'd say that's a good attitude! Every time I see Dan Erlewine take a stone and a hammer to make dents on that freshly repaired and repainted vintage '53 Tele it hurts my soul. Same thing with the scraping he does for faking cracks. Oh come on! Cracks are cracks, scratches are scratches! If he wants the finish have cracks there's ways to crackle the finish naturally if the intention is to make the surface look old. Drawn cracks look drawn, you never can duplicate what 60 years of shrinking does to paint. As you said, EVH gigged with that guitar for 6-7 years and despite cases and stands to keep it playable things happen. Sweat, dirt, sleeves and arms make a mildly abrasive and dissolving cocktail that can't be mimicked by towing behind a car. That subtle wear can be accelerated a lot with sandpapers of various grits but one should take into account that even the finest grits like 2000 are a long way coarser than the arm of EVH, bare or inside a sleeve. Speaking about using a pebble to create a dent: I once laid an unopened ½ litre can of beer aside of my desk. Our house isn't the cleanest but we don't use outdoor shoes inside so the pinewood floor looked dusty at the very worst. Well, for some reason the can tilted and tipped on the side. Our cans are thicker than the American ones so you can imagine my face when I lifted the can: It started squirting beer all over the place from a tiny hole on the side! No way I could ever replicate that no matter how hard I tried! Same thing with relicing, you never can duplicate a once in a lifetime oopsie. But you can speed the aging process by multiplying the wear and tear factors ten- or hundred fold. That's what they do when they test the durability of fabric or other surface materials. Heat, moist, UV light and mechanical wear magnified will speed the aging process of anything.

Outside the (shoe) box thinking...

I very much appreciate that you took the time to show the finished product! Sometimes these just take some more time than expected... HINT: If your guitar is of open pore design and you get wax into pores, simply use a brush (clothes/shoe brush type) to polish the pores. If it works for waxing shoes shiny, why shouldn't it work for other live surfaces? That's what I thought in the same situation and the result was shiny!

Using a jar is a clever idea should you ever have to leave a half full glass for other tasks. Screw the lid on, put it into the refridgerator and enjoy when you're free to continue that tastiful task.

As it says there it's oil with Poly and Turps. If you mix it yourself you can control the amount of "Layer on Top" or rather how fast that layer builds up. That 'Danish Oil' is basically the same stuff I mentioned earlier. And if you want it to dry faster, why not mix the linseed oil containing 'Imported Chemical Dryers' (which can actually mean pine turpentine!) with PU Varnish which should also be easy to get? Anyhow, as a ready mixed single product the Danish Oil is a good choice as it gives both the looks and feel of oiled wood and also some mechanical protection against wear and tear. Depending on how shiny you want it you can apply as many coats as you wish. More coats will fill the pores, a dozen or so may suffice for a level surface which can then be buffed to at least a nice sheen if not glossy.

That really looks nice, I like how you managed to get such large cracks that don't follow any given direction or pattern. I revisited a couple of instructions and actually, if I understood correctly, a thin top coat might work even better as the entire process relies on the top coat drying faster than the base which should not be fully cured. Heating the top coat makes it dry even faster which may explain the partially violent crackling. Well done!

Your workmanship is outstanding and does homage to the pretty woods! That said, what kind of filler, if any, did you use for the bottom? Those dimples are quite visible, if I may say.