adding dye to a clear lacquer

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
voitty
Wandoo
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:56 am

adding dye to a clear lacquer

Post by voitty » Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:54 am

Hi Guys, I have been waiting 4 weeks for my Stewmac walnut dye to come so i am getting sick of waiting and am now wondering if the wattle dyes i saw at bunnings would do the same job if i add a few drops to my clear lacquer any one used these dyes before.

simso
Blackwood
Posts: 1769
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:36 pm
Location: Perth WA

Re: adding dye to a clear lacquer

Post by simso » Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:59 am

Yes. I use the feast watson's myself
Steve
Master of nothing,

Do your own repairs - http://www.mirwa.com.au/How_to_Series.html

jeffhigh
Blackwood
Posts: 1536
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:50 am
Location: Caves Beach, NSW
Contact:

Re: adding dye to a clear lacquer

Post by jeffhigh » Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:28 pm

Yeah I use the feast watson too

User avatar
Kim
Admin
Posts: 4372
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: South of Perth WA

Re: adding dye to a clear lacquer

Post by Kim » Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:05 pm

Yeah F&W stains work well, must say that I like the TransTints colour range better and its a top grade product...I think you will find that the Stewmac ColorTone range is in fact re-labelled TransTint made by J.B. Jewitt Co in the USA..

Some good info about TansTints here: http://www.joewoodworker.com/transtints.htm

The manufacturer, J B Jewiit, has more details on their website outlet 'Homestead Finishing Products'

http://www.homesteadfinishingproducts.com/

I include this stuff because much of the info seems to apply to the Feast & Watsons tints as well and there is some pretty good tips for using these tints.

Cheers

Kim

User avatar
Dominic
Blackwood
Posts: 1098
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:58 am
Location: Canberra

Re: adding dye to a clear lacquer

Post by Dominic » Sat Dec 03, 2011 4:03 pm

I have both. I started off using the FW stuff because I could get it from bunnings but I found it harder to mix colours because each colour is already a bit muddy. So it quickly went some non-descript brownish /grey/black colour. I found I was stuck with either darker (stronger) or lighter of the given colours. It was hard to make a nice warm amber.

A few good things about the SM stuff.

You get the primary and secondary colours so its easy to mix your own perfect shades.
And you have those bright colours if you want to do retro electric guitar finishes.
There is more information about mixing ratios in the lutherie community because it is widely used for this application.

In fact, SM have an excellent book for about $25 called "Guitar finishing - step-by-step 2nd Ed. by Dan Erlewine and Don McRostie. It has dozens of recipes for vintage sunbursts and solids. In most cases they have gone back to the original instruments and meticulously deconstructed the order of sealer, undercoats, tints, and clear coats and they factor in existing factor technology. Its quite interesting just to read about factory colour. Gibson being famous for their beautiful sunbursts on flamed maple. For instance, it covers the early methods of staining the bare wood on mandos and the coating in clear vs the new factory approach which tints the lacquer to get the same colours. But the new method obscurers the grain while straining the wood is more difficult (expensive) but looks better. So it goes into great details. It also has colour charts for the SM colortone dyes and the results of various mixes and concentrations.
And it gives around 30 recipes for classic finishes like Les Paul gold top, cherryburst, and tobacco bursts, and classic fender solid colours and bursts. And it covers in detail the use of water based clear on a Martin style acoustic with many pics.

Great book.

Cheers
Dom
You can bomb the world to pieces,
but you can't bomb the world to peace!

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google and 49 guests