Tims ash ST-1 linseed oil finish (First Build)

[wokkaboy]

Tim, don't stress, first coat can be a bit patchy, different parts of the ash take up more wudtone than others. After 24 hours curing give it a light fine steel wool onceover and apply your 2nd coat, concentrate on the darker areas evening out the colour. The colour should be more even after the 2nd coat and the dark ash grain should pop more.
Good luck and look forward to pics after the 2nd coat. Are you going to stain the headstock dark amber ? should look great

[crundes]

Cheers Wokka, not too stressed, just hoping the next coat starts to look more like I anticipated Did you mean vintage amber for the headstock? I didn't know you could get dark amber, sounds cool, maybe I could add some dark tease to the vintage amber to get that?!

I have stained the headstock today also. You're right about different parts of the wood taking up more stain than others. I felt I applied it pretty evenly but there are some areas that are much darker than others. Not to worry i'm sure it will even out with some steel wool. I think it may be a little too yellow at the moment to match the body too.

Also I had my guitar body hanging out on the clothes line in the sun for an hour or so and when I brought it in a crack had appeared in the glue join where the neck inserts. It's tiny but you would be able to see light through the other side if the pine handle wasn't in the way. I think the wood must have shrunk slightly in the heat. Does anyone know a good way to re-expand the wood? or should I try and glue it together?

Here are the pics of the neck and the slight crack...

[crundes]

Hmmm quite hard to tell on that pick that there is a crack.

[wokkaboy]

Tim, I was getting my wudtone colours mixed up, there is no dark amber, I meant dark tease. If you think vintage yellow is too yellow I'd mix a bit of dark tease and experiment. You could go over the headstock face with a coat of dark tease to try and match the body colour, but up to you.
See if you can get a better picture of the crack with the light coming through, you might have to remove the hanger

[crundes]

Thanks again for the input Wokka I think I will probably end up matching the neck with the body. I like the idea of the vintage amber but I just don't think it suits the body.

I was going over the body with 0000 steel wool today and found that the body was looking much better then before but after a couple of hours I just couldn't get an even finish. I had a big think about it and finally decided to strip everything back completely and go through the process of sanding down to 240 grit again.....(let's just say I'm not addicted to sanding anymore!)

I'm glad I did in the end because I realise now that the original coat I put on was way too thick. I used half a bottle of Wudtone for the body initially and have now gone over it since sanding it down with only a fraction of the bottle used. I got a much better result this time, it's still no dingobass IB-5 but the grain is showing much more and hopefully can only become more pronounced with more coats.

The other good thing is that when I got home the small crack in the wood near the neck joint had closed up!? must have just been the change in temperature that caused the wood to shrink in the first place.

So here are the results with round 2 of wudtoning, certainly not perfect but I'm much happier with the result

[maxaxe]

Oh yeah! Lots of grain prominent now, all that worrying for nothing?
Dark tease Wudtone really is a great choice IMO.
The outdoor shot shows off the fruit of your labours to great effect.
Jury is out on the question of the neck colour :?

[lawry]

You sure have put a lot of time and effort into that Tim. And it's looking spectacular for it! My first build used dark tease and it looked awful initially but ended up looking great. I did the neck on mine too.

[crundes]

Cheers Maxaxe, yeah I think I was worrying for nothing! But I am glad I started again, it certainly showed me how little wudtone you actually need to get a solid coat on. I think I'm going to cut it back a bit too before the next coat with a little advice from Gavin1393.

Thanks Lawry, I'm much happier with the result now! Did you do a build diary for your first guitar? Would love to check it out, what was it titled?

[crundes]

Oh and yeah I agree Maxaxe, not too sure about the neck colour.... Might cut that back too and see how it looks, but I"ll probably stain it in Dark tease if I have any left or just apply clear coats if the light maple looks good against the body.

[Brendan]

Looking speccy Tim. Love how the grain has really popped!