Beginning the finishing

Here's a few shots of the beginning of the finishing of Jyrki's guitar. I love the point when the fine sanded woods start to come alive and get their finished colours under the first shellac coats. This is the point when faith is starting to turn into seeing...

Tung oil and french polishing are the ways to go in this shop. No spray guns allowed. Or needed.

The neck is finished with Tru Oil, a famous brand of gunstock oil. It'll give a nice, satin, woody feel to the neck. A thin layer is wiped on, the excess wiped off after a while, using a paper towel. I let each layer dry 24 hours after which I buff lightly with 0000 steel wool before adding the next coat. A week or so'll build up the thickness I need.

I prefer my necks with no tinting. The beauty of the wood itself something I don't want to shade with colors.
Age and natural UV rays will  darken the wood gradually.

The first step of french polishing is to seal the rosette, binding and purfling, so that no purple color from rosewood is traveling to contaminate the koa binding, white purfling strip or the spruce top. This is done a few times, using just a folded piece of cloth. Then the whole guitar is spit coated with shellac using cloth, before the actual polishing/building up action takes place.
I LOVE the tone and lustre of the koa binding against rosewood!

This time I'm trying Ubeaut Hard Shellac that is rumored to be harder and more durable than the ordinary shellac. We'll see that later.
The rosewood is pore filled with Timbermate filler from stewmac. It seems easier than the pumicing or epoxy methods that I've tried before.