How to finish a white lute?

[dulciepercy]

So this is my lockdown lute made according to the David Van Edwards tutorial.

I strung it up to see if it would fall apart, but so far it seems it holds together. Before I learn to play I need to decide on the finish. So far it has just a little bit of Danish Oil. Van Edwards says a beginner should avoid varnish if possible, but for lutes made of light wood (mine is all maple) you should varnish it to look like honey. The picture attached is in a halogen lit room and the lute looks a lot lighter in better light - if the rain stops I'll take it outside.

Before I do that I'm looking for advice. The tutorial says 3 layers of clear varnish to protect the wood, 3 layers of colour, 3 layers of clear to protect the colour, then polish. The Sydney String centre website says they stock Hammerl violin varnish but I haven't asked them in person.

Do I have options, or are there other products available (the String centre is only 10 mins away and I have to go past Bunnings)? Martin in response to my introduction said he plans to French polish his own lute. I've never done this and it sounds even more complicated.

Should I be happy with my oiled lute and just learn to play it?

Thanks for any ideas

[kiwigeo]

You did a fine job on that lute...magnificent looking instrument. What strings did you fit and where did you get them from? Did you turn the tuning pegs yourself?

[dulciepercy]

Thanks Martin. I've very happy with it, even though I know where all the imperfections lie

The strings are La Bella nylon from Strings by Mail. Only about $20 for a full set, but the 3rd course kept breaking, even tuning to A415Hz. I don't think it's a sharp edge on the nut, so I'm going to try nylgut from Aquila once I've decided on the finish.

I was going to do the pegs - the local woodturners club has moved to my suburb and I went up to say hello. They were happy to help but Covid stopped it. So I bought some from ebay made in India (about $50 for a set of 13 in boxwood and delivered in a few days). They are a bit narrow, don't match my reamer properly and I made the holes a bit big. But I made some bushings for the worst holes and it all works ok. There is plenty of wood to ream up for larger diameter pegs if it ever comes to that.

[sebastiaan56]

Nice job indeed. You can be proud of your achievement!

Ive just finished french polishing a bowlback mandolin. I also use Wurth spray Laquer but it was too cold and it went foggy so I reverted to tried and true methods. For the soundboard Ive been told that glair is traditional. Glair is egg whites whipped past stiff peaks till the liquid runs clear. Water resistant and tough. As for getting a nice yellow colour try Button Laq for your french polishing. Most natural stains such as coffee, tea etc are not light fast and will fade.

[Mark McLean]

I will add my congratulations for a fantastic looking instrument, which definitely deserves to be played so you need to get about learning to do that!
As far as finish is concerned there are many options. I agree that a traditional instrument like this probably doesn’t want a modern spray lacquer finish, and you are probably not set up for that. I would go with a hand applied finish and the two main options are French polishing with shellac, or a hand applied oil finish. FP is traditional, can be managed with a DIY setup, and can look great. Drawbacks of FP are that it is slow, requires many many sessions of application, and is not the most hard-wearing of finishes. Some of the regulars on ANZLF are very successful FP experts and can advise you.

My personal vote would be for an oil finish. You have already applied some Danish oil so you know how easy it is to do. But Danish oils (there are many different brands and recipes that carry that name) don’t tend to have great durability either. Best for instrument finishing IMHO is either Tru Oil or Evo Hard Wax oil. Both have the same ease of application as any oil finish but they produce a very hard and durable finished surface. Like all finishes they are repairable. If you need to fix something you can just sand it and then apply more oil on top and it blends in invisibly. You can get them to high gloss if you build up any layers and then level and buff. But if you want a nice satin natural look you can get that after 4-6 coats and rubbing back with steel wool.

[dulciepercy]

Thanks Mark I like the idea of wipe on finish.

By Evo hard wax do you mean "Whittle Waxes Evolution Hardwax Oil - Gloss". Available by mail order from various places. Any bias for this or tru-oil?

[kiwigeo]

French polishing sounds scary...but it's not. The great thing about FP is that it can be removed and you can go back to square one of you have a huge disaster.

The ribs on that lute look like a closed pore wood so you won't have to worry about pore filling. I find pore filling more frustrating then the french polishing sessions.

There are plenty of good tutes on french polishing. LMI have a tute that is one of the simpler ones....https://www.lmii.com/blog/2017/10/07/fr ... sh-finish/

[Mark McLean]

Whittles is one brand of hard wax oil, and there are others like Osmo. I get a bit confused which is which as some of them are on-selling other brands. Seems to originate in Germany. You won’t find it in Bunnings. It can be found in some woodworking and timber shops (Carbatec have it), or in some places that sell products for hardwood flooring. It seems expensive, but you use very little to do an instrument so buy the smallest containers. Available as matt, satin or gloss.
Tru Oil is marketed as a finish for gun stocks. You can buy it in gun shops or online. Again, a little goes a long way.

Pore filling - what a pain, and why? So that real wood can look and feel really smooth like plastic? Open pores is my preference, but I seem to be in a minority with that opinion.

[lamanoditrento]

I'm with Martin, FP is not that hard just a bit of a learning curve and the real pain is the pore filling. It's basically just wiping on shellac, levelling and buffing. If you're going to go with satin oil finish both tru-oil and osmo easy to apply. I much prefer osmo feel under the hand.

[dulciepercy]

Thanks for all the advice. Since I'm not doing the soundboard, just the curly bits and pegbox, I'm inclined to use oil/wax this time and save up french polish for my next guitar.

Now have to decide on Osmo (driving past the shop today) or Whittle Wax from Carbatec. Whittlewax has a "gloss" option and a small sample can that will probably be enough.

[TKAY]

Congratulations, it looks great. As with any instrument build, in paticular, only the builder sees the "problems"!!
With my Lute, I brushed (many coats) of white shellac which was a good learning experience. When it comes to the belly ,stay away from anything which may dull the sound/vibrations, those finishes that soak in, actual or percieved. Egg white will give a very hard clear finish with little to no colour change.
I made a wax from Lundburghs book which seems OK, beeswax carnauba and Terpentine.
Having strings break points to a problem, probably a sharp edge somewhere. I have used rectifed nylon,Strings and Things, tuned to A440 with no problems, are your courses using octave tuning?
It will be interesting to follow the progress of your build,all the best with it
Tom.

[dulciepercy]

Thanks Tom
It's already done now
This is what it looks like with 3 layers of Osmo PolyX. I've polished off some dags with 3000 which seemed to leave no trace. Didn't even take off the frets. The soundboard I will leave for now. It's got a light layer of Danish oil - mostly to stop masking tape pulling fibres from the Englemann Spruce. I might try the egg white on a scrap to see how it goes over the oil first.

The Osmo was available in a shop nearby so I bought it despite the price (about 4x per litre than Chivas).

I'll give it a couple of days to cure a bit more then get cracking with stringing up, and now the nut is off I can go over the grooves again.

[Mark McLean]

Looking very good

[sebastiaan56]

Slick! One of the features of oil finishes is that they do yellow over time. This can be a feature or a distraction depending on your personal taste. Looking good!