Advice on Black Walnut Finish: Stain??

[Bill Kraus]

I say leave it natural. This is a photo of a black walnut guitar I recently finished. It has a 3-pc. back and the wood had the coloration and the beautiful light streaking that yours does (on the sides and outside wings of the back, the center wedge was from a different tree). The color really came out with the epoxy pore fill and lacquer finish. With the coloring of your wood, I think yours will be more interesting and beautiful.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by Bill Kraus

I say leave it natural. This is a photo of a black walnut guitar I recently finished. It has a 3-pc. back and the wood had the coloration and the beautiful light streaking that yours does (on the sides and outside wings of the back, the center wedge was from a different tree). The color really came out with the epoxy pore fill and lacquer finish. With the coloring of your wood, I think yours will be more interesting and beautiful.

Good old fashioned straight grained beauty . Who needs figuring anyway ?

[ChuckEzell]

That's beautiful @Bill. I'm convinced - no stain. I really like that binding is that ebony?

[IndianHillMike]

Originally Posted by ChuckEzell

Having said all that I have been planning on doing the grain fill with "AquaCoat". Any caution here if i'm not going with a stain? Maybe skipping the early effort of the french polish grain fill steps hopefully?

I would avoid using AquaCoat. I tried it on a guitar or two a few years ago and was very very unimpressed. Almost anything you use to fill will sink a bit (especially with french polish) but this stuff seems to never stop sinking. I had a jar of it that was about 2/3 full when I decided to stop using it and it sat on my bench unopened for another year or two. When I opened it back up, there was maybe an 1/8 of the jar left -- I don't know what the solids content is for AquaCoat, but I'm guessing quite low.

If you're french polishing, I'd try filling with pumice (you can add ground shellac and cuttlefish bone to help as well). I've done A LOT of french polishing over the years with many types of pore fillers and I always seem to go back to pumice.

[ChuckEzell]

@IndianHillMike thanks for the experienced advice. I'll take a look at pumice as alternative. I like the results I see from what folks are getting with the epoxy but I'm afraid I might create more of a mess that success first go 'round. In my meager experience it seems like the French polish method is more forgiving maybe just takes a bit longer.

Question: Do you sand down to a certain grit before you start the pumice? I'm assuming I'll need to get it sanded down really well with a 1000 grit or more (maybe wet stand at some point) ? I've done electric guitar finishing but not much for acoustics ever other than basic touchups here and there.

Thanks again for all the input.

[Bill Kraus]

Originally Posted by ChuckEzell

That's beautiful @Bill. I'm convinced - no stain. I really like that binding is that ebony?

Hello Chuck, yes, it is ebony bindings on the guitar. Please post pics when this guitar is done, we'd love to see the finished product.

[IndianHillMike]

Originally Posted by ChuckEzell

Question: Do you sand down to a certain grit before you start the pumice? I'm assuming I'll need to get it sanded down really well with a 1000 grit or more (maybe wet stand at some point) ? I've done electric guitar finishing but not much for acoustics ever other than basic touchups here and there.

Thanks again for all the input.

I wouldn't sand higher than 320 before filling. Ideally you will be left with a thin and even film of pumice after filling that can then be sanded away with either 320 or 400 before starting polishing. You can always fill again if (when) you sand through so it's a time consuming but relatively low-stakes job. Just make sure you don't have any residual swirl marks from the pumice before polishing!

[ChuckEzell]

Thank you all for your input. I decided to mix up some garnet shellac and try starting with pumice as suggested. The color and grain depth I was hoping for is coming out as hoped. This is where I am at the moment just before sanding again.

Thanks for the advice! Excited to see how this will turn out.

[ChuckEzell]

A few other images...




Thought I might try that walnut on the back of the headstock too.

[Bill Kraus]

Looks great Chuck, I look foreward to hearing your opinions on the shellac/pumice pore fill.

[ChuckEzell]

Its been a while since I posted progress on my Cedar / Walnut OM project and I thought it was about time to post a recent photo of the french polish and pumice progress.




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As Indian Hill Mike suggested this is, in fact, a very forgiving process. Truth be told I did do at least two wet sanding stages early with 800 grit and more recently with 3000 grit just to catch some high spots here and there. I'm happy with the color however, I was hoping for more black and maybe more contrast. All in all for my first real attempt at doing this right it's been a learning experience but i'm happy with where it's going.

[runamuck]

I strongly dislike the color of Black Walnut when freshly planed and sanded. It's that brown/gray color that reminds me of a cheap casket.

The thing is, is that if you leave it unstained it will develop red and yellow hues over time and become much more beautiful as it ages. If you stain or dye it that's not going to happen.

Like someone else mentioned here, don't use a water based finish on it or the beautiful hues it has the potential to develop will likely not happen.

[ChuckEzell]

Good to know. I skipped the stain after all the good advice here. I’m sold on the pumice and French polish process.

[woodbox]

Having built my first a few years ago using American Black Walnut with an Alaska Yellow Cedar top, I was going to make a few comments to the OP.

But now, having read the contributions from the professional luthiers,
I’ll just be still.

Wow ... to get such support/advise from esteemed builders.. Wow.
I’m humbled to silence over here.

I’m not sure how I missed reading this thread until today, but I’m glad I found it.

Although I have an experienced luthier as my mentor, and will be starting my second (and last) build in the fall,
I know where to turn should I need some guidance.
Much gratitude for the generosity I witnessed here today.


ps.
for what it’s worth, I too was going to encourage a non-stain answer to the initial question.

[Nemoman]

Looks fantastic, Chuck--nice work!