Keeping the binding free of stain

[Dpdarren]

Hi forum members, on the instruction video for staining, it seems that the binding has been stained as well. I would like to leave the binding Unstained and white. Do you tape it up, or does the stain wipe off the binding?

[Joe3334]

You can try taping off the binding but some stain may bleed through into the binding, you can use methylated spirits to wipe the stain off the binding.

[Dpdarren]

Great suggestions thanks

[Bakersdozen]

There was a post on here somewhere about someone making a device using a pack of cards and a stanley knife blade to cut the masking tape to the exact width of the binding. Sounds like a great idea if you can make it work. You can also get pinstripe tape in various widths from a good autopaint / body supplies shop

[Andy40]

My method is as follows:
1. during the sanding process I level any keying of the binding and then sand the binding up the grades to 2000 grit - while I am doing this I check to see if there are any cracks in binding (if there are the cracks will take the stain so you may have to clear coat the binding with tru oil during the staining process then scrape tru oil off later)
2. put masking tape around binding (edge of the tape to the side of the guitar and poking up to the top (or back) of the guitar) and then use Stanley blade and run it along the edge of binding to get a level cut
3. stain away.
4. remove tape at the end of staining
5. scrape off and bleeding of the stain to binding (it will only be surface) from binding with stanley blade and sand up the grits to 2000 again
Bingo, clean binding

[Fretworn]

Yeah, if you polish the binding before staining any stain that get on the binding will often just sand off afterwards.