Tru oil with a waterslide decal

[Diggydude]

I am placing a logo on my headstock and am going to finish the neck with tru oil. I know that I can do a waterslide decal with tru oil, but how? the instructions with my paper says to spray with a lacquer to seal it- do i spray an oil based lacquer?

[robin]

Hey DD not sure what type of waterslide you have but I usually put a couple of coats of tru-oil on the headstock, smooth out the wipe marks with abrasive pads (obviously the smoother the finish the better) and apply the waterslide over that. The T-O seals the wood. I will then apply my usual 20+ coats over that.

I have never been able to completely bury the waterslide, I am never game to keep sanding down the T-O in case I go through and cut into the waterslide.

[McCreed]

Hey DD not sure what type of waterslide you have...

I'm presuming he's using "inkjet" waterslide paper and creating the logo with an inkjet printer.
Inkjet printer ink needs to be "fixed" (sprayed with a fixative) to make it water resistant, otherwise it will dissolve right off the film when palce in water.
Laser printed decals (on laser paper) do not require this step.

...do i spray an oil based lacquer?

As for "oil based lacquer", it not a really a thing. Lacquer is a solvent based material which is different than oil based (one could argue that mineral turps is also a solvent, but that's another discussion).
The typical recommendation for fixing inkjet decals is acrylic lacquer (eg: White Knight Clear Acrylic). Most art fixatives are acrylic sprays. There is the whole acrylic lacquer vs acrylic enamel discussion, but that still confuses me.

As for Tru-Oil over the acrylic lacquer, I have no direct experience but I'm sure somewhere on the web someone can confirm or deny the compatibility. Tru-Oil has a proportion of polyurethane in its mixture and the general (very general) rule of thumb is: Lacquer over Poly, OK - Poly over Lacquer, NOT OK.

Since the fixative layer will be very very thin on the film, it may not be an issue, but I would research it more to be safe.

[Diggydude]

Thanks for the info, yes I am using the inkjet variant.

I'll have a look around and see what I can find, I'm just worried about putting an oil finish over an acrylic spray. I suppose I could do a test, don't know why i didn't think of that already...

[grahamjohnston80]

I recently have done a similar thing.
Inkjet decal which I sprayed with acrylic spray. Once dry I applied it to the guitar as per the instructions. I have put a few (6) coats of Tru-oil over the top and it seems to have come out okay. You can just see the edge of the decal. This is getting better with each coat.

[Diggydude]

Looks good, it seems you haven't had a bad reaction from the oil and acrylic, that's a good sign. That's my main worry, I put it on and then it goes bad...

[grahamjohnston80]

Yip, it all looks good so far. Come to think of it - I put the decal on and gave it a few days to dry. I think I then put 2-3 coats of the Dingotone neck finish on top before I started on the Tru-oil. Maybe this made a difference?? Not sure what the Dingotone is made of??
I wasn't 100% happy with the Dingotone neck finish so I decided to finish with tru-oil.

[McCreed]

That all looks like a positive result Graham and all this discussion has jogged my memory a bit...

I think I mentioned in another recent thread that I have not done water slide decals in a very long time, mostly due to unsatisfactory results, but anyway... When I did do them, I would have done them with an inkjet printer and fixed with acrylic.
I know back then I would have been using rattle can polyurethane (probably Cabothane) and I don't recall any reaction between the two.

I think the balance of what I know and what I've forgotten is beginning to tip in the wrong direction...

[grahamjohnston80]

FYI, I used White Knight Crystal clear as it was recommended by the people that sold the decal paper:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/white-kn...gloss_p1583964

[McCreed]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep, that's the stuff.