Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everybody,

What kind of product do you use for polishing a Tru Oil finish to a high gloss ? Birchwood casey purpose a product, but only for a satin finish.

Thanks in advance.

Guillaume.

For polishing oil finishes, including tru-oil, you can use rottenstone mixed with oil to produce a nice lustre, and if you want to get a higher shine then use something like Meguiar's #9 swirl remover and #7 glaze polish (made for cars). You'll never get that high gloss that a mechanically buffed nitro finish will give you, but who wants a guitar that looks like it's coated in plastic anyway.

This is an oil finish, not Tru-oil but similar, that has been rubbed out with rottenstone then hand polished.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin,
That's a fabulous finish.

If you have the time could you please tell me what your finishing schedule is? And what sort of oil do you use? I am looking close to home for luthiery items these days due to the weakening £...

Guillaume, I've polished a Tru-oil finish with Mirror (Cuivre, Laiton, Bronze) after 1000 grit Wet-or-dry paper used wet with a drop of 'liquide vaisselle' in the water. As Colin said, you can also use auto polish. By the way, have you found a supplier of Tru-oil in France? The nearest I have found is David Dyke in the UK.

Colin,
That is beautiful. Please do tell.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Link It's just my Torres homage, La lena. See and hear, here.

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=15647&hilit=La+lena

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

What an excellent source of inspiration...thanks for (re) posting!

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Tru-oil is a buildable finish, once you get it level and filling the surface pores you can just keep going.
I dont like to polish the final coat though. what I do is level the penultimate coat and wet sand it down to 2000 grit, then wipe on a final thin glaze coat of the tru-oil

I just finished my first with Tru-oil, and love it. It definitely does build. I used Novus scratch remover and polish, working on a small area at a time. It is apparently made for removing scratches from acrylics and the like. Skipped the # 3 (coarse) as Alan said and started with #2 and then #1. Prior to that I was micromeshing it and I was not getting the results I thought I would. It shines up beautifully and is holding up well. I got it at a local plastic supply house, and will definitely use it (both the Tru-oil and the Novus) on the next one.

Steve

Hopefully Colin is able to chime back in with a schedule.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

True oil is definitely buildable, whether it is padded on or sprayed on (sorry, Filippo, but it's a fact.) The thing about True Oil that some people don't like is that it isn't as rock hard as lacquer.
However, this can be viewed as a blessing. It depends on one's point of view. To get back to the main topic of the thread, I will say that I sprayed a half dozen thin coats of TruOil on my archtop tailpiece, and then I let it cure and harden for about a month. It's important to be patient and to wait for the cure time. After curing, I polished it with the full range of micro mesh pads, rubbing them dry, and achieved a glassy, water-clear finish. Now...as to the "blessing" part of my statement: Oil finishes are almost infinitely repairable. If they wear or become scratched or otherwise need some attention, it's absolutely possible to gently buff the surface with 0000 steel wool (be sure to sweep, wipe, and blow off steel particles after, and then sweep, wipe, and blow again, and then do it all a third time!) then re-coat, re-cure, and re-polish. I've got a 30-year-old coffee table that gets horribly abused. I touch it up every few years. No witness lines, either. (but I confess I am not bringing it up to the watery gloss of a guitar finish).
Good luck with your project.
Patrick

Guillaume and Filippo, I just thought of something else that might be pertinent. If I were going to put Tru Oil on a spruce top, I would spray the top first with shellac to seal it. This would prevent the subsequent oil coats from striking into the wood. With a porous back and side wood, I would fill the pores first, level everything out, and then I would consider spraying a sealer coat of shellac here, too. But I would have no real qualms about going straight to the oil over a well-cured pore filler. As with everything else, I always do some practice trials on scraps of wood before I commit myself to applying anything to the guitar. Rest assured, Tru Oil will polish beautifully. Just give it plenty of time to cure and harden.
Patrick

A small, strong magnet tied in the end of a sock will remove steel wool particles better than any method I ever tried.

Mike Franks
www.mjfranksguitar.com

Yes, I've already sealed the guitar with shellac.
Thanks for all answers. I'm going to buy Meguiar's. I've already this product from LMII:
reference: FCP, FFP, FSP. Do you think it's make almost the same result as the Meguiar product does ? I have test it on a scrap piece of wood (with few coat of tru-oil): It have burn the oil ... So I'm worry to use that on a guitar. Perhaps my finish was too thin.
Dave, I've found the Tru-Oil on the ebay.uk, cause you're right, there's no suppliers in France (or I didn't know them). Where do you live ? I'm in Toulouse.

Guillaume.

LMII product that I'm talking about was ... Meguiar products, it's written behind the bottle It's the same as Meguiar #7 and #9 I think.

Thanks. So I'll use the fine polish and the super fine polish, but not the cut polish who is too aggresive for a french polish or tru oil finish.

Hey, Mike, that "magnet in a sock" idea is great! And it's such an obvious solution--that is...once someone else has told me about it. Thanks!
Patrick

Salut Guillaume, I'm about 40km from Bordeaux and 30km from Arcachon.