Stained Timbermate

[ILRGuitars]

Hey guys, has anyone done a full tute on using stained timbermate on a veneer?

Things like:

How much stain to use?
Consistency of the slurry?
Drying times?
When to stop sanding back?
etc,etc,etc.

Thanks

[wazkelly]

Hi Buddy, personally I would steer clear of doing anything that requires sanding on a veneer.

Having use TM a couple of times it does require a fair bit of sanding back. Have only done 1 build with a veneer and only wire brushed out/off the glue spots and then a quick swipe with 240 before applying stain. Far too risky sanding any further and plenty of builds on this forum full of the dramas others have encountered.

2 stage stain coats helps to pop the grain in shades of the stain where you apply a lighter one first and wipe off as much as you can then 24 hours later apply a slightly darker coat. If it still looks a bit underdone, repeat step 1 and go again.

[ILRGuitars]

Cheers Waz. I did something similar on my TL-Q1 and I only lightly sanded that too. It came up ok but no as smooth as I would have liked. I'm doing an ES355 next and trying to get that PRS flame perfection look, without the spraybooths, heat lamps,years of experience, personnel and only a garage.

[wazkelly]

Proceed with caution if you dare and suggest a very milky, watery mixture and scrape off as much as possible before it is allowed to cure and dry.

[Andy40]

IRL, I used ebony timbermate on my spalted maple. I would have no reservations about doing it on a quilt or something. Just dont sand the veneer first. apply the timbermate and wait for it to dry till the next day. then lightly sand it off only using 240 - just to take off the excess timbermate but stop as soon as the veneer is showing, then use 320 to take the majority of the timbermate off but again stop if high points are becoming really light, then maybe 400 if necessary in the "valleys". Spalted maple was really ripply so i had to make this up in the finishing stage by putting a lot of coats downand sanding flat. but in the end i had a grain pop without going through the veneer.

I have also mixed DT stain with neutral timbermate. Not a problem. I wished I had gone a bit darker you need to put a lot of stain in there. although its a waterbased putty and DT was oil based, it was not a problem. don't know about spirit based stains though, would probably test on some scrap wood.