Need Finishing Advice

[45LongColt]

Hello everyone. New poster here, not a guitar guy, but I am working on a project and Ive been following guitar builds as my inspiration. Im actually refinishing a shotgun stock to mimic a guitar Brock burst. I see no reason that shotguns used for skeet and clays shooting should look like the same old brown wood finishes. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but Ive done enough of them that I want to mix it up now. This is from a Browning Citori 12 gauge that had the typical dark chocolate stain covered by a 1/4” of hard poly or epoxy clear coat. Took me days of sanding to remove the gloss coat, and several days of soaking in acetone/mineral spirits to remove the deeply embedded dark stain. I let it rest to gas off for about 2 weeks, then sanded to 320, raised the pores with water/heat, then cut the grain back. Did this 3 times, then completed my dye coats. I used Angelus leather dyes and blended and feathered the colors to get my burst. Dye has now dried about 5 days.

So, here is where I need assistance for my next steps. I feel like I need to lock in the dye with a sanding sealer, before using a fill. Since gunstocks are Walnut, it has heavy open pores that Id like to fill. But I dont want the dye color to bleed or get muddy. Suggestions on how to go about my next steps to finishing it off. Do think a clear 2K gloss coat will look best, but not set on that necessarily. Thanks. Pics below.

[Fathand]

I have dyed guitars with leather dyes, Feibings.
Alcohol based leather dyes dry fast, I think I was spraying EM6000 20 minutes after applied on my current project.

What is at risk is sanding through your lovely sunburst after sanding sealer or grain filler etc. goes on top of the thin dye. You could use the obvious, Gun Stock Oil Finish or Tru Oil. Just wipe on and no sanding, maybe a buff at the end. Little risk of damaging your dye.
French polishing shellac after leather dye is risky as the alcohol in shellac can dissolve the dye and it is less durable than Tru Oil.

My current project is a mahogany J45 with leather dye rubbed sunburst. I am finishing it with water based EM6000 gloss and no grain filler as I don't trust myself to sand the grain filler without damaging the sunburst. I find the EM6000 has enough grain filling properties.

There was a coat of 1/2lb cut shellac under the sunburst top but not the rest of the guitar, just dye. 9 or 10 coats filled the mahogany with level sanding after each 3 or 4 coats. I was final levelling it today. The mahogany neck took 4 or 5 coats to fill it. I probably do thicker coats than suggested.

My last guitar was black walnut, which filled after about 8 coats of EM6000.

This is my first EM6000 finish, sprayed with a $36 HVLP self contained gun/compressor. A bit of dye and No grain filler.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194462...posted-public/

Best advice, practice on some scrap walnut. Put some dye on it then run through your chosen finish schedule. If you don't like results, plane or sand it off and try again.

[45LongColt]

Thanks for the advice. So you dont think the 6000 will cause the dye to bleed? Ive heard you should spray a sealer over the dye first to clock in the color. Im avoiding oils since all of the cause an amber tone and I wanted to keep the vibrant colors. Thanks

[45LongColt]

Your guitar looks wonderful. Thats about the sheen and finish Im looking for. What type of wood was that? Thanks

[Fathand]

Originally Posted by 45LongColt

Thanks for the advice. So you dont think the 6000 will cause the dye to bleed? Ive heard you should spray a sealer over the dye first to clock in the color. Im avoiding oils since all of the cause an amber tone and I wanted to keep the vibrant colors. Thanks

I had a little bit of bleed onto cream/ivory coloured plastic binding after my first coat, which was probably too heavy, and only 20 minutes after dyeing. It scraped off. There was no noticeable bleed on the sunburst on mahogany. Your sunburst gun stock is not hard straight contrasting lines which easily show bleeds. Do your first coat lightly to prevent bleeds. Some sanding sealers are also alcohol based shellac which can also cause bleeding on alcohol base dye. Once again, practice on scrap.

[Fathand]

Originally Posted by 45LongColt

Your guitar looks wonderful. Thats about the sheen and finish Im looking for. What type of wood was that? Thanks

That is Honduran Mahogany, there is some leather dye on it, I think I mixed some dark or chocolate brown with a touch of oxblood. The centre stripe and heel cap are rosewood.

This is Walnut with Watco brand Nitro Lacquer from a rattle can. Grain filled but No dye to worry about sand through or bleeding.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194462...7720296961058/

This is red Fiebings on ash with Tru Oil Gunstock finish. I forget if I used grain filler it was a 3 week build for Christmas so I was in a hurry and probaly not.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194462...7720296689111/


Another Tru Oil finish on Osage Orange with Maple trim and Walnut neck. Sorry not a better pick of the Walnut. There is Aquacoat grain filler but no dye.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194462...7720296630125/

[45LongColt]

Wow! Those are some beautiful finishes for sure. Ive probably finished 20-30 gunstocks now, but most were natural, or oil based stains, grain filled by sanding dust, then top coated with either poly, danish oil, lacquer, tung oil, truoil, or velvet oil, or 2K. Some were buffed afterwards depending on desired look. This is my first try at dying prior to finish and I don't want to screw it up. So thank you very much for the tips.

This was a Tung Oil finish


This was a Danish Oil finish


This was a TruOil finish


This was a lacquer finish



This was a 2K finish


This was a poly finish