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Has anyone ever done a french polish over a gel stain? I'm experimenting with doing a hand applied sunburst on the top (with Transtint Dyes), and a dark gel stain on the main body wood (General Finishes Java). I like the look of the gel stain because it's ver dark, very even, and only lets a little grain show through, though it lets some show through. I want to then do a french polish on the whole thing. Sort of my experiment to see what's it's like to do a color scheme without spraying.

Is there anything to look out for? The think that worries me a bit is that the gel stain has urethane in it, so it's almost like a top coat. I've never done shellac with urethane, though I'm assuming it will be okay as shellac seems OK over practically everything, but I don't know.

I am planing to do a similar test when I start finishing the two I am working on in a few weeks. Was also considering using a dark garnet shellac to create the burst in addition to trying dyes. Not planing to stain anything under a FP but may thoughts are that it would most likely need a seal coat, and it could not be shellac. You mention gel stain, and if you mean the stain and poly finish all in one stuff you may be onto something. In that case I would want some build, 2-3 coats maybe and then scuff with maybe 320 or 400 to give a good anchor for the shellac.

What type of bindings and purflings are you planing to use? What are your thoughts on keeping them clean while applying the FP burst so they don't get lost?

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I have used behlen laquer over a gel stain on poplar that had a red NGR stain underneath the brown gel as I wanted a reddish brown effect.I/m guessing that you could seal the waterbase or oil based stain with a coat of dewaxed shellac prior to the french polish. As always I would use a scrap test sample first

I just scrape them clean when I'm done. To keep the burst dye from dripping down the sides by accident, I tape the sides of the binding and then seal with a bit of shellac (so the dye doesn't sneak underneath the masking tape. The binding itself scrapes clean very easily, though. I tried it all tonight and it came out well, though I think I'll simply go back to spraying sunbursts in the future. Doing it by hand was a lot of work. It was fun for an experiment, though. Before starting the FP, I carefully put a heavier seal coat of shellac to keep from ruining the dye work (which was done with Transtint dissolved in water).

I gave up on the gel stain idea for now. I tossed a coat of shellac on the body wood (alder) and it just looked so nice that I decided to leave the back bare with the sunburst top. I did do a test piece with some gel stain and shellac on it, and it seemed to work fine for now, anyhow.

I am planing on adding dye to some shellac and polishing the burst into the finish. I like the idea of sealing the edge of the masking tape with a spit of shellac , that may be the trick I need.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/