Crackle Finishing

[Shibs]

Anyone know how they get that Crackle finish? I have been doing some of my own Musikraft bodies and I want to try a crackle, like the Charvels that were at the summer NAMM show!

Thanks... Hope to get some help!

Shibs

[straycat]

Its some kind of activator sprayed over the layers of paint that causes it to separate.Funiture refinishers use it to antique pieces.
The defenition in the crackle depends on how wet or heavy the paint is.
Thats how it was explained to me by someone that has worked with this paint.
Say you want a black and yellow crackle. Base coat black,yellow over the black and spray the clear activator while the yellow is still wet and the yellow starts to separate.
Not a very good explanation but thats the jist of how it works.

[DonP]

Its some kind of activator sprayed over the layers of paint that causes it to separate.Funiture refinishers use it to antique pieces.
The defenition in the crackle depends on how wet or heavy the paint is.
Thats how it was explained to me by someone that has worked with this paint.
Say you want a black and yellow crackle. Base coat black,yellow over the black and spray the clear activator while the yellow is still wet and the yellow starts to separate.
Not a very good explanation but thats the jist of how it works.

Interesting. I always thought /guessed that the black was the top coat.

[Spivonious]

That makes me wonder if my Predator wasn't originally a crackle. It definitely looks like someone painted the crackle lines on top of a black base.

[Bullseye]

You going to start crackle finishing guitars too? :idea:

[metalchurch79]

I always wondered what the finishing process was on this. Maybe Learn or someone can enlighten us on it?

[Davey]

hmm... as far as i know, it's like this.. the crackle is an effect when the top paint is drying faster than the bottom one is. how pronounced the crackle is, depends on how wet the bottom paint is and how much faster the top paint dries (and thus shrinks)

[metalchurch79]

Davey, I know what you mean, cause this summer I was primering a body on my porch, and I put another coat on it too soon, and the heat from the sunlight cracked the finish to an almost 'perfect' crackle finish.
Too bad it was primer, or I would have kept it that way.

I bet that once you got the base color on, you could quickly paint the top coat, and then hit it with a hair dryer to produce that effect.
I wonder if they did that or threw them in an oven?

But it's probably some kind of agent that shrinks the top coat as opposed to heat.
I'd really like to know the correct way.

[Newc]

It's my understanding that the original Crackles were done using a chemical wash that was banned by the EPA, and that the new ones (which are noticeably different) are done using a much safer, but more predictable, process, or even simply airbrushed to look like that.

The new ones look more like barbed wire silhouettes to me.

Plus, it depends on which crackle style you're going for - the thin-lined Desert Crackle or the bold Firecrackle like on the cover of the Jackson Electronics manuals.