Tru Oil - Long term review

[wazkelly]

Having used Tru Oil as a top coat on all of my builds I wanted to start another thread showing how it ages and can transform the look over time. On my 1st & 2nd builds I used Dingo Tone MkI for the base colour stain and intensifier but could not get the DT top coat to behave and switched to TO instead.

After many, many coats and wet sanding sessions both Explorers came up looking nice and shiny. What you are about see is basically before and after shots representing photos submitted in GOTM when build was completed plus photos taken today to try and highlight the differences over time.

EX-5: Completed 29 Feb 2016



Photography skills were not so good back then as these were taken in bright sunlight.

[wazkelly]

EX-5: 27 Jan 2020



Considering this was done almost 4 years ago it looks pretty much the same now. No obvious signs of yellowing or discolouring.

[wazkelly]

EX-1: Completed 25 April 2016



This looked super shiny back then.....

[wazkelly]

EX-1: 27 Jan 2020



This Guitar has gone a more Caramel colour over time which I quite like as it now looks closer to a traditional Korina finish. (Look closely around neck heel joint to see a truer aspect of the colour) What I did not expect shall be revealed in next few photos.....

[wazkelly]

EX-1: 27 Jan 2020......Finish is now more satin than the original high gloss???




This is really weird as the guitar has lived mostly in a closed hard case under a bed and not played too often. The DT finish has also started to wear on the back edge and it feels soft and almost tacky on back of the neck too. But the transformation from high gloss to almost satin has me baffled? The angled shot shows a bit of shine on the side but there is next to zero reflection on the top or back anymore?

Still looks OK to me and not tempted to refinish and happy to live with it as is and let it take on a naturally relic appearance.

[wazkelly]

Non PBG Tele: Completed 11 May 2017



This started off as a nice shade of blue and started to go green fairly quickly.....

[wazkelly]

Non PBG Tele: 27 Jan 2020



Control plate is loose as I am doing some work on the 4 way switch. Next shot shows the yellowing on binding...

[wazkelly]

Non PBG Tele: 27 Jan 2020

yellowing on binding



No longer need to do a green guitar anymore as the longer I wait the greener this one gets!!!

[Simon Barden]

Interesting. It may be that the finish has sunk into the wood as time has gone by. It wouldn't need to sink much to turn gloss into satin. It could also be a slow Dingotone/TruOil reaction.

[wazkelly]

Interesting. It may be that the finish has sunk into the wood as time has gone by. It wouldn't need to sink much to turn gloss into satin. It could also be a slow Dingotone/TruOil reaction.

3 and a half years?