What's a good tung oil?

[Budman68]

Yep, I used a dark walnut grain filler so the pores would be darker than the mahogany. It don't like the look of light colored pores but some do I guess. That's an interesting tip on the sanding slurry though, thanks for sharing.

sully, that explorer came out great for john, it's perrrrrrty!

[sully]

thanks dave. that was cherry tinted watco danish oil. i did a test of different tinted oils on a slab of mahogany and let john pick out what he liked the best.

i didn't grain fill or sand after the oiling, though; i applied 4-5 coats, buffed out the excess, then waxed it, then buffed it out again.

oh, and i only use the golden oak danish oil on birdseye maple; i use regular (untinted) danish oil + wax on regular maple necks, and boiled linseed oil + buffing on fretboards.

sully

[sully]

dave, what body was that originally? that's a great piece of mahogany. was that something you stripped and oiled or made?

[Budman68]

dave, what body was that originally? that's a great piece of mahogany. was that something you stripped and oiled or made?

It was a real Model 88 and I tried numerous times to do the correct burst

but I just don't have the proper spraying setup to get the correct results.

So..... I just decided to oil it and I'm glad I did!

[sully]

wowee, i think i remember those pix. you really brought it back to life quite nicely.

[Budman68]

thanks, it's amazing how much character in the grain was lost under that burst from the factory, ya know? Seeing it uncovered, it's a huge difference.

[Jackson-Charvel]

Thanks for the tip Dave on using a darker grain filler for the pores of mahogany. I have an Ibanez SDGR-485 mahogany tung oil and it was so dry looking brand new I applied a few coats of Min Wax Tung Oil and after a few coats and lots of buffing it came out nicer than the factory but had I known anything about using grain filler I would have done that. That said that was 2-3 years ago and the next application of tung oil will be soon. I might try that slurry idea and not sure if the grain filler will even work unless I want to do alot of sanding.

[Bengal65]

Yea, the idea of grain filling just kills me. I've tried them all including epoxy, water based, oil based for hard finishes and now the slurry method. I talked with a couple of the Woodcraft instructors at my local store and told them of my fustration with grain filling. They said everybody has trouble with grain filling. Then one of the guy's who knew guitars said, "now you know why Fender/CBS came up with "Fullerplast" back then". I laughed. Yea, they couldn't get enough guitars out the door with the few people they had grain filling. Just blast it with Fullerplast and encase the grain. The slurry method worked best for me for an oiled body. I use it when I want to keep the color consistant with the existing grain like on light Korina. It's messy though. I just put the body in a bath of oil in a plastic pan (rectangular Rubbermade bin). You keep sanding and squeege the slurry off as you would using grain filler. Let dry a day and repeat as many time as you like until it is glass smooth. Don't let any slurry dry on the guitar though (I learned the hard way) It's a bugger dry sanding. You have to put it back in the oil and wet sand again. It comes out great though.