This post is much more to thank Michael Payne for his consistent efforts to teach FP-from someone who has finally gotten it. I am doing some B---- necks and pots/rims/resonators. I don't do nitro because of lack of safe facilities. I have always been most comfortable with a hardening oil finish. But, I really wanted to do FP. Since I am finishing so much maple I am able to avoid pore filling issues. My first attempt resulted in pulling off shellac as I built up body. Well, I had printed just one of the many occasions when Michael patiently taught(way back when-Waddy was confused on FP) and re-read it. TOO WET!. I thought I had been squeezing out excess shellac(2 pound, fresh Hock Pale) from my muneca. So. I prepared a new one, cheesecloth inner, linen outer, and let it rest overnight. This morning, starting at 5:30 AM, I began to body a beautiful natural maple neck with ebony "peghead" and heelplate. The only places I have varied are spiriting and oil. That may seem like a great deal to vary, but here is what is happening. The maple and ebony is taking coats with no mini-ridges from the linen, The few pores in the ebony leveled right away after two bodying sessions-maple was smooth from the start. The muneca has always been moving throughout contact. I started blotting on the back of my hand until I felt little coolness and saw immediate vaporizing.
During a bodying session I noticed a faint scratch(how it got there is a long story). I did not run for the micro-mesh, as emphasized by Michael. I decided to continue my bodying to see if the finish was really building. In between body coats, I stored my muneca in a ziploc. I have not had to recharge the muneca. It is continuing to lay down coats without sticking and I know I am really building because the scratch is gone.
I have walnut oil at the ready along with ethanol. Because I am working DRY, neither has become necessary. I don't bear down hard, just long "confident" feeling strokes, doing touch and go like a pilot practicing landings. I have a total of seven bodying sessions done and the wood glows and there is visible depth to the finish and the finish is dead smooth everywhere. The epiphany was trusting to "dry."
I am going to do two more "coats" but can see no point in doing more, unless one of those is finally the one that begs for oil and needs to be followed with spiriting. So far, the feel does not suggest that-but, I am ready. I religiously blot on my hand everytime I do a session. I do not assume anything even though I have not reloaded. Right now, I would be proud for anyone to see this result.
Thank you, Michael. Mike T.
PS- I really worked over my hands with "Burt's Bees" last night-that may explain why I have not had to oil.
. One would be hard pressed to drag me away from results like this. I just did the last session, still no reload and still no sticking. I must have really nailed the cut-and I am using well washed linen. One thing that may have helped the beginning of the whole process is that I popped the grain with a deeply rubbed in, very thin hardening oil wash coat It was allowed to dry overnight, though that was "overkill." The brand I use dries much faster than Tru-Oil and sets harder. Mike T.
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
keep up the good work
just kidding
![[xx(]](./images/smilies/smiley11.gif "Dead")
I’m not going to shoot you, I’m not going to shoot you...........Like heck I not!!!! 
There was not even a close resemblance in color. The original cedar top had turned red over time, and the fresh wood is a bright beige. I wound up with an inverted sunburst around my guitar due to the different wood colors. I can't say I wasn't warned. ![[headinwall]](./images/smilies/headbangwalluf8.gif "Mad")