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

[crundes]

@ Lawry: Thanks for the kind words It's certainly not how I envisioned it when I started out but I'm still very proud and pleased with how it's progressing.

I've now applied 2 coats of Wudtone clear, which I thought looked really good but I've decided that I"m going to try and learn as much as possible with this build so I wanted to try a couple of different finish options, so I also used 5 coats of Tru-oil over the top of the Wudtone clear to see how the finishes differ. I like the look of both but I felt the tru oil brought out the grain slightly more and darkened the colour slightly too. The Wudtone was easier to apply but the Tru-oil was by no means difficult.

Here are some pics of the progress so far

[crundes]

I also picked up some second hand fender highway 1 pickups on ebay for a good price. They came in a loaded pickguard, which is also cool although the pickguard has some sun damage or something so I will only use the pots, selector switch etc.

[wokkaboy]

cool looking good Tim, the pictures don't look too glossy for 5 coats of TO (it could be the angle or the light of the photos), you must be applying thin coats.
Pickups and pots look good, so you will transfer them to the white pickguard ?

[crundes]

Yeah I took the photos just after I steel wooled it before applying a what I think is the 6th coat so I kinda timed the photos badly. It also may have been the 4th coat as I've kinda lost track of the coats cos I've been applying them intermittently over the last 2 weeks.

I'm not sure how glossy I want it to be though so I have been applying super thin coats. I was originally after a satin finish but am gradually liking how the tru oil is looking so will keep going for a couple more coats.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Tim, thin coats you should get a smoother finish as well.
I keep a track of my coat numbers in my signature of builds otherwise I'd lose track too !

[crundes]

Still not sure If I'm going with the white pickguard. Have been going a bit crazy on ebay buying a few variations of pickups covers and pickguards so will post those pics when they arrive to see what you guys think. But whatever it is I'll just transfer the pots and pups to that one.

[lawry]

This is turning into a more and more classy axe, Tim. The grain is fantastic and the dark tease shows it off beautifully. And those pups should sound cool.

[stan]

really nice build Tim

[crundes]

Ok well it seems I've run into trouble yet again. I applied four coats of tru oil since the last lot of photos and was going to stop at that and move onto the next step but I applied the coats a lot thicker than the previous ones and ended up with a small blob of hardened tru oil in the middle of the guitar. I thought having applied the coats quite thickly I would have plenty of room to steel wool the blob away and still be left with an even finish.

It turns out I underestimated how thin the tru oil coat was and ended up taking some of the colour out of the Wudtone. Subsequently many abusive words were hurled in the guitars direction, which certainly didn't improve the situation but did make me feel a little better after the blunder...

So now I'm wondering where to go from here. I have no Dark tease left to patch it up as I used the whole bottle because I have already sanded it down once and started again, which took up 2 guitars worth of stain. I'm also not sure if patching it with some new dark tease will get the same depth of colour as the rest of the guitar.

When it comes down to it if worst comes to worst I'm really not worried about sanding it back and starting again. I have really enjoyed the process this far and would be happy to do it again but it would feel like a bit of a waste.

Here are some pics to see the damage. It's a very small spot but It's not small enough that I'd be happy with the end product if I just left it there.

Cheers

Tim

[pablopepper]

We've all been there dude. Don't resign yourself to sanding it off just yet. I'm no expert, but I would try dabbing a bit of wudtone on the area with a cotton tip, very lightly. You might find you can patch it with one or two spots.