Cracked bindings

[Ricardo]

Hi everyone, hoping I can get some advice off some of the more experienced builders here in regards to cracked bindings.

I'm currently building an FC-1 kit I got in the January sale, all was going well until I came to stain it. After doing some research I decided to stain the whole guitar and then scrape the bindings clean. As I scraped it back I noticed parts of the binding have small cracks in them which have absorbed the stain, leaving it looking like this.

I don't think the problem was my technique as the bindings on the fretboard and f-holes came out looking great, and the cracks seem to be mostly around the horns where the binding takes tighter turns.

I'm unsure how to proceed from here, while the damage is only cosmetic it is very noticeable and spoils the effect of the white binding and dark stain. I would rather not try to remove and replace the bindings as I think it would be beyond my capabilities at present.
I only have stain on the body at present, no clear coat, so I can still make changes, but short of painting over the damaged areas I don't have any ideas on a fix.

Don't know if anyone else has had this problem before but I could really use some ideas and advice.

Cheers, Ricardo.

[dingobass]

Bugga....

I am not sure if you can ever get all of the stain out of those cracks.
If your stain is a solvent based one, You can try to remove the stain with a rag and thinners, but first test on an area that wont be too visible just in case the thinners melts the binding.....

[Gavin1393]

Reckon the thinners may melt the binding....
What did you use to scrape the bindings clean?

[Brendan]

How deep are the cracks? If they are superficial enough - can you scrape them a bit more?

[Gavin1393]

How deep are the cracks? If they are superficial enough - can you scrape them a bit more?

Yeah! thats my thought as well...but would suggest using a razor blade....

[Brendan]

Razor would be spot on - alternatively - some small cabinet scrapers... https://www.carbatec.com.au/handtool...-3pce-veritas?

[Ricardo]

I've already scraped them as deep as I dare, any more and I will be eating into the right angle. They go pretty deep.
I scraped them with a fresh Stanley knife blade, worked really well after a few hesitant tries at first, trick seems to be big bold strokes.
I will try the thinners idea to see if it works, stain is feast and Watson black which is thinned to a grey colour with metho, will see what happens.

[Gavin1393]

Ricardo, before you painted the guitar did you prepare (smooth) the bindings as part of the preparation of painting the body or did you focus on the body (wood section) and simply paint over the bindings?

[Fretworn]

It's a pity they aren't all the way around. Then you could make it a feature, not a flaw.

[Gavin1393]

It's a pity they aren't all the way around. Then you could make it a feature, not a flaw.

Fretty, I was thinking the same thing.....to do this he would just need to run the (razor) blade around the edges to achieve this. A few 'branches' as well so it is not too uniform. The thing that has me intrigued is that many of the cracks look perfectly straight like they may have been made from a previous scrapping of the bindings?