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Can this be done, was thinking of using dark shellac on the outer part and keep the extra blond in the middle, like a sunburst kinda, is there any info on this ? has anyone tried it ? are there any photos on a similar procedure ?

Lars

Was thinking of starting this tomorrow, So if anyone would be so friendly to stop me ! then now´s the time hahaha. I already have a lot of coats on the top with extra blonde shellac, but I dont like some marks that have come to show ( it´s the grains that are a bit darker on the edges at certain places.) thats the reason for wanting to try make is a light sunburst thingy.

Lars

Bump

Hi Lars

Don't know if this is quite what you're thinking but have a look at this:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ ... x?id=30182

Neil

Mike Snider and I are currently doing this exact thing on an electric guitar. All of the color coats are shellac with dye added and then sprayed onthe guitar. The topcoats will be lacquer. If I remember I willget some pics of it when in the shop today.

Not sure how you'd make a sunburst with traditional French polishing, but you can indeed add colors to shellac and spray it, and then spray clear shellac (or lacquer, as Robbie mentions) over that. This mandolin was done by rubbing water based dyes directly into the wood, then sprayed shellac over that. Some of the spraying around the perimeter was done with deep brown dyes added to make this area darker, before clear coats were added. Spraying shellac is a bit more tricky than lacquer as it tends to run a bit, and that can play havoc with your colors if you have them in there.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

With traditional French polishing you hand rub stain the burst on the wood, allow to dry completely. Seal with a spit coat and allow to cure 2 days then French polish as usual.

Now this puts the color on the wood. I have see some attempts that came out good of padding on the burst with translucent stain in the shellac but that process is touchy at best but do able. However to do a true figure eight boding session where you are partially re-melting the existing shellac by means of solvent as you apply new shellac is not well suited for controling stain colors.

I'm not sure you'll get any real result. Sure, shellac types looks really different from beer blonde to coffee dark, but when applied there doesn't seem to be that much difference. I am currently using Amber (4 out of 5 on darkness scale at LMI ) and after 3 sessions I swear I dont see any difference over the blonde I have used before (2 out of 5) If it is not going to get better soon the client will be disappointed since he requested a dark top...

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Build log

Just made my first "REAL MISTAKE" Did as my post says, and put darkest shellac + added a color to it to darken it even more "guys in the store i got it from said it would work with shellac. well I started to rub it over the allready 2 days of rubbed shellac on the edges, and ! lookt like my little angel of a sons paintings. well they are not a good match for my guitar allthough beautiful in their own way . So I sanded all the shellac of ! and now I am starting over. The good thing is that I now have a perfect looking top as iu also got me a Festool 125 ETS EQ !! Wow what a difference, this machine is killer ! . love it. So god willing I will have a great looking to pafterall . Alexandru mine made a hugh difference, allthough I had some added darker color .

Thanks for all your inputs my friends.
Lars.