The holy grail of waterborne finishes?

[Quickstep192]

I was on the Luithiers’ Mercantile website looking for parts and stumbled upon their endorsement of a waterborne finish called Crystalac.

Has anyone here tried it?

[charles Tauber]

I tried their topcoat some years ago. I can't remember much about it. However, I recently used their pore filler sold in Canada under the brand "Britetone". It works okay, but seems to take many applications to completely fill the pores. It might be my application technique.

My current preference is waterborne finishes is Target EM6000.

[MC5C]

I've used their Britetone high solids instrument lacquer (at twice the price as Crystalac) and found it quite excellent. Rapid build, around half the coats as EM6000, sands and polishes very nicely. I have not used Crystalac, since they recommend the Britetone for musical instrument finishing. https://thecrystalacstore.com/ http://www.crystalac.info/ http://www.crystalac.info/musical-instruments.html

[charles Tauber]

Good to know, thanks.

I tried Target’s high-build EM7000. It was a disaster, crazing to the texture of a tortoise shell an hour after spaying. The stuff I used was a year old. After many failed attempts I gave up on it and discarded it. I noted that they no longer manufacture EM7000. A lot of time and effort wasted.

[Quickstep192]

Originally Posted by MC5C

I've used their Britetone high solids instrument lacquer (at twice the price as Crystalac) and found it quite excellent. Rapid build, around half the coats as EM6000, sands and polishes very nicely. I have not used Crystalac, since they recommend the Britetone for musical instrument finishing. https://thecrystalacstore.com/ http://www.crystalac.info/ http://www.crystalac.info/musical-instruments.html

When you used the Britetone, was it easy to spray and level nicely?

[Carey]

I've sprayed quite a few guitars with Crystalac, but it was a fair while ago,
and I don't know if the formula is still the same. At the time I tested most
of the waterborne finishes available, and of those, found C'lac to have the
best combination of characteristics. The 'blue cast' can still be a problem
on dark woods with Crystalac, in my experience; workability was good.

[MC5C]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

When you used the Britetone, was it easy to spray and level nicely?

yes, it was very easy to spray right out of the can, and I almost didn't sand out the neck, it was so level off the gun. If it wasn't so expensive I would have stuck with it, but I decided to try EM6000 for my next builds. I don't build a lot of guitars, one or two a year.

[KingCavalier]

I'm thinking about using CrystaLac on my next build.

Can someone tell me what it's like to buff out?

Thanks

[redir]

I never found a water base finish that I liked. My problem was that one guitar would come out great, another not so great. I could not be consistent with it. And I have seen one of my guitars come back about 15 years later and the finish looked awful. Fortunately the guy loved the guitar for it's tone. But they may have gotten better since then so if ya find one that works that's great.

[Quickstep192]

One of the reasons for my original post is that my experience with waterborne finishes mirrors Redir's.

I only ever experimented on test panels, but I'd get a perfect coat one day and a terrible one the next day. It doesn't help that I'm a lousy sprayer.

I've read that Crystalac Brite Tone is new and improved, but before I add one more can to the shelf of finishes I've experimented with, I'm hoping to leverage someone else's experience.

[Quickstep192]

I found this video in case anyone is interested. I’d be curious to know what others think of the look of the finish.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZukkD2IHQ

[Carey]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

I found this video in case anyone is interested. I’d be curious to know what others think of the look of the finish.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZukkD2IHQ

Really, it looks pretty much the same as the C'lac I've sprayed; if you see the
still pic where the tree is reflected in the finish, you can see the cool-ish
blue cast. Not that noticeable on mahogany, but on say East Indian RW or
the dark part of a sunburst... When I used it I spayed a sealer coat of shellac first, which warmed it up *a little*. Wonder why the fellow used so many coats of the sanding sealer.

[Quickstep192]

There was something about it that just didn't look right, but I couldn't pinpoint it. Now that you pointed it out, I now see that what I was seeing was the bluish cast. I kind of wonder if it had anything to do with the 4 coats of sanding sealer.

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Every waterborne I ever tried had a blue milky haze, except KTM SV.