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Anybody have a good source for having some water transfer decals made? Also, does anyone know if there's a version of those decals available that will go under varnish or French polish?

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

I ordered some from EF Hays in Colorado springs ( brauskoh@hotmail.com ) in 2010... I have only used a couple.. they are compatible under nitro, but I can't say about other finishes.
Seems like I located his offerings on ebay...
I used artwork that was created from a sample of my signature and have been pleased with the decals
I'm told that waterslide decals are fairly easy to make if one has an inkjet printer, though I've never tried it...

I just did this for the first time.

I send a PDF to Diecast and Decals (good service, cheap too, I guess)
They sent me a few sheets of my design.

I shellaced the headstock face multiple times, and sanded it in between until it was basically free from pores/grain texture. (The wood was pore filled prior)

Once I had a nice leved area, I sprayed one more coat of shellac, and left it unsanded (shiny) so that the finish behind the clear portions of the decal would not show scufffed finish.

Water slide the decal on. Then after it's fully dry, spray a few more coats of shellac to build it up a bit. Then finish as normal (I did a sprayed oil varnish)

Be careful when scuffing/leveling to not get into the decal. After 6 coats or so, the area was totally leveled out (bump from decal was gone), and the decal was invisible in the finish.

It worked out as well as I could have hoped.

I've always liked the look of decals for certain types of instruments. I always get stuck on one issue though with decals available now. All the suppliers seem to provide decals that are cut out and have a sharp edge to the decal. Back when I was a boy, lo those many aeons ago when Triceratops roamed the earth, building models, water slide decals all had transparent feathered edges that followed the perimeter of the decal design. So when you shot finish over them there wasn't a "bump" at the edge of the decal.

Do any of the suppliers mentioned provide this type of feathered edge water slide decal?

Alan D.

I remember those decals from plastic model kits.

I don't know about the feathered edge - if anyone does it I will let you know. It might have been eliminated because technology improved to the point where you can make a decal that's 12 or so microns thick and it's easy to level out. Sounds like it was easy for at least one current user to get rid of any signs of the decal.

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

Yeah, I did nothing special, just level it out like you do other imperfections while you're scuffing/leveling.

It worked really well.

Wow!! Now that is really thin! 12 times 10 to the minus 6th!! You must have to use nano-tweasers to move those. I'm guessing you meant 12 thou, right? Still that is thin and it doesn't matter too much if you have to build the finish on the headstock, won't ruin the tone. I think the last model I built was a Stuka Stunt, put a McCoy 35 in that. Sheesh, my model airplanes had bigger engines than my weed whackers do now.

Alan D.

http://www.giraphixsp.com/LITHO.htm

According to the website above, 12 microns. If you are feeling bad about calling me out, you can make it up to me with a bottle of boutique whiskey.

[edit]
...and you might want to watch those decimal places. 1 micron = .001mm so we're talking 12/1000 of a millimeter. Of course, I don't think you specified units so it's 12x10^-6 of SOMETHING...but not mm, I don't think.

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

12 microns = 12x10^-6 metres.

Just for reference, household aluminium foil is ~12 microns thick. The heavy duty stuff is ~18-20 microns. The foil lining that goes inside things like Tetra-pak boxes is ~5 microns thick. And when you get used to it, you can measure that by feel.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Ah, meters. Of course! I guess I don't do much that requires me to measure in units that big so it doesn't occur to me to think on orders of scale larger than inches and centimeters.

Thanks for clarifying!

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

Well, I sit corrected, it actually is 12 microns, and I do know that is metric and forgot to specify the units. Just very surprised that it is that thin. So, Laphroaig or Beaumaris

Alan D.

26 microns in about 1 thousandth of an inch.

I'm surprised to hear that foil it 1/2 a thou...seems thin.

I'm going to measure it when I get home. I prefer expensive Rye, thanks!