Raven's first build - JMA-1

[wazkelly]

Hi Wazkelly,
Any suggestions on best TimberMate colour to match the natural Ash grain colouring ?
(Further to your earlier/previous suggestion I tried some Ebony Timber Mate on a sample piece of Ash timber and found it yielded a blue-black tinge. This might have been okay under a tinted finish but I'm now looking to use DT Nullarbor Ochre - pale red-brown with satin finish.)

Hi Raven, suggest looking on http://www.timbermate.com.au/product...od+Filler.aspx
This provides a rough colour chart that could be useful.
It all depends on how pronounced you want the grain to be under the final stain colour. A lot of people use Ebony as that highlights the grain in an almost black shade and can look quite good if the dark contrast works. Not so good if dark stain on dark filler.
Another thought is to use Natural TM and add some of the stain colour when mixing down into a slurry as that will then grain fill in the same shade but may hide any sexy grain patterns.
An idea i was considering for a future build was natural or white under a dark stain to achieve a reverse grain pop or zebra effect. A bit like a black & white photo negative look.
Plenty of possibilities and comes down to how much you want to highlight the grain.
Cheers, Waz

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[Raven]

Following advice I used Timber Mate filler. Tried Ebony, Jarrah and ultimately Hardwood/Tas Oak. Found that Ebony and Jarrah tinted the surrounding wood, although I later found that DT Nullarbor Ochre obscured the Jarrah colouring. Shots after sanding the filler:


Applied DT Nullarbor Ochre stain coat. Filler took on more colour than base timber. Generally okay but a few spots with excess filler



After drying found that Nullarbor Ochre did not hide glue lines and glue residue (as I discovered earlier, what looked initially like orange marker pen line turned out to be excess glue residue which seemed to be impervious to things like acetone).


Looking for any suggestions on what to do to rectify these issues. Was thinking about using a fine artist's brush to apply either more stain or something else onto the glue lines. Not sure about how to handle the major glue residue mark on the bottom (is also on top but will be largely masked by the scratch guard.) [If I do a project like this again I would apply a really dilute wash of Black Japan to the body to highlight any and all imperfections.]
Tempted to put on another base coat to fix a few areas of low absorption but don't really want to make the body any darker, so looking for guidance on this and whether to sand first.

Also looking for any feedback on to what extent subsequent DT Enhancer and Final Coats will have in terms of hiding or blending things.

[Andy40]

Hi Raven,

I find that where the glue is pronounced, no stain will take, no matter which stain you use.

Some of the guys use a wire brush to score the glue marks so that stain will take on kits. I personally sand around the ash join with 60 grit, then 80 grit, 180 and 240 until I cannot see the glue so much in join. I never sand lighter than 240 or the DT wil have nothing to grip. then I fill with timbermate. The timbermate will take on the stain properties (even using Dingotone) and sometimes hide the join a bit, but its an artform. darker colours are better for this.

When using the stain colours, I use about 3 - 4 stain coats and 3 - 4 intensifying coats to get a deep rich colour (but its personal preference).

It is doubtful that the stain will "hide" glue spots because the stain simply cannot grip over glue. That being said, As DT is oil based, what you will find is that once all of the stain coats have cured, (I usually give it a week in normal weather), it will have formed quite the base over the wood and the "intensifying coat" will sit over the top. It may go some ways to covering up the glue join but the problem is you have to apply the intensifying coat very thinly, if you put too much on in one go it will not look good once dry and you will have to sand it off anyway.

You should be able correct these issues with DT by spot sanding say with 80 and then 180 grit over the glue spots , then re-staining the troubled area before moving on. be careful when sanding the ash join that you don't get any major "tear out".

Thats the "long way" i would tackle the problem, but maybe others would have a different method.

[Raven]

Thanks Andy40.
I actually sanded down to 400 grade, partly to avoid or correct the 'tear out' you mentioned, which occurred in one spot when I first sanded with a heavier grade. (I also dampened with water to help raise grain and holes in the bottom of the concave curves for sanding purposes - not sure if this ultimately contributed to the glue line visibility problem).

Re your suggested spot fix approach, do you ultimately re-stain the whole body or can spots of new DT application be happily blended in ?

I quite like the current nutmeg colour. How much darker will multiple coats make this ?

[chrissyinbkk]

That to me looks real nice now... I'd be putting clear coats over that

[stan]

Nice work Raven, it’s looking great

[Raven]

Have now put 3 coats of DT Nullarbor Ochre on and think the answer to my question about how many coats to apply was 2.5 !
Here's how the body looked after coat 2 - a big improvement on consistency from 1st coat and almost good enough with only a few minor dry spots.


I let it sit for a number of days and opted to put on a 3rd coat. Has had about 4 days of warm temperature (high 20's to mid 30's) and still does not feel completely dry (compared to 1st and 2nd coat outcomes) as it still exhibits a slight tackiness. Also looks like the DT has pooled in a few places as if it didn't soak in and/or blend in on overlaps. Happy to take any feedback about how the base coat of DT behaves in a multi-layer situation and also happy to hear suggestions about how to remediate any spots where the finish has not fully blended.