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Ideas for refinishing neck needed


shoulderpet
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Hi all

In an uncharacteristic idea for me I decided to strip the finish on a satin finish neck and refinish in a tinted gloss varnish as the original neck is a very pale maple colour,  however after 3 attempts I have found that (probably because I suck at this kind of thing) I just cannot get an even finish so I have stripped the neck back to bare wood again and looking for easy refinishing ideas that I cannot easily bodge, I was thinking a clear gloss varnish would be hard to mess up but am wondering if there are any other options I should try, maybe there is some kind of wax I could use that will seal the wood and give it a nice gloss? thank you

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Liberon Finishing Oil is very easy to use. It was recommended to me by a Well respected local maker of classical guitars. It is really a varnish which is applied With a rag or paper towel in as many thin coats as you need. I refinished a maple Jazz Bass neck with it recently and it looks and feels great. Previous experience includes refinishing a Tacoma koa acoustic guitar, which I gave about thirty coats. It will get glossy with a sufficient number of build coats, or semi matte with two or three coats.

Leaving a maple neck in a sunny but not too hot area will cause the wood to darken, which might help you to get the results you seek.

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5 hours ago, songofthewind said:

Liberon Finishing Oil is very easy to use. It was recommended to me by a Well respected local maker of classical guitars. It is really a varnish which is applied With a rag or paper towel in as many thin coats as you need. I refinished a maple Jazz Bass neck with it recently and it looks and feels great. Previous experience includes refinishing a Tacoma koa acoustic guitar, which I gave about thirty coats. It will get glossy with a sufficient number of build coats, or semi matte with two or three coats.

Leaving a maple neck in a sunny but not too hot area will cause the wood to darken, which might help you to get the results you seek.

Thanks, I think I might leave the colour as is for now and might try some beeswax or carnauba wax to seal the wood , have heard of people using boiled linseed oil for fretboards, wondering if that might be a viable option, also would like to keep to items with as few ingredients as possible so anything that is a pure oil or wax would be great

Edited by shoulderpet
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Danish oil works for me on the rear neck wood. Pour a little oil onto a clean rag cloth to apply then wipe excess off with another rag. Applying oil on bare wood may raise the grain a little on first coating but once it’s dried off a bit, you can ‘smooth’ that back using finest wire wool and apply a little oil again. If you use wax I think carnauba is the one used for guitar finish work.

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2 hours ago, mybass said:

Danish oil works for me on the rear neck wood. Pour a little oil onto a clean rag cloth to apply then wipe excess off with another rag. Applying oil on bare wood may raise the grain a little on first coating but once it’s dried off a bit, you can ‘smooth’ that back using finest wire wool and apply a little oil again. If you use wax I think carnauba is the one used for guitar finish work.

When I refinished a couple of necks some years ago, I used Danish Oil in this way. IIRC, I put on three coats in total, using super fine, wire wool after each coat. Both necks turned out really nicely.

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10 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Thanks, I think I might leave the colour as is for now and might try some beeswax or carnauba wax to seal the wood , have heard of people using boiled linseed oil for fretboards, wondering if that might be a viable option, also would like to keep to items with as few ingredients as possible so anything that is a pure oil or wax would be great

I used to use linseed oil on my gun stocks.  Nasty sticky stuff but does the job.  Be careful you don't leave linseed soaked cloths stored - they can spontaneously combust. " Rags soaked with linseed oil (especially when stored in a restricted space where any heat produced cannot dissipate) are a known fire hazard." - East Sussex Fire & Rescue

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On 20/06/2020 at 16:05, lownote12 said:

Be careful you don't leave linseed soaked cloths stored - they can spontaneously combust. " Rags soaked with linseed oil (especially when stored in a restricted space where any heat produced cannot dissipate) are a known fire hazard." - East Sussex Fire & Rescue

Yep...........had report of this happening in a small inustrial unit near to us. Thankfully, the resulting fire was managed before things got really nasty. The fire incident report clearly cited discarded, "soaked" rags after using linseed oil as likely cause.

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I think this also applies to tung oil soaked rags. Maybe other oils are similarly risky ?

Also if anybody is mad enough to be sanding floorboards in this heat, the same danger exists, i.e. don't leave bags of sanded wood waste inside the house overnight, put them outside.

Anyone understand why this stuff spontaneously combusts ?

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12 hours ago, blisters on my fingers said:

Anyone understand why this stuff spontaneously combusts ?

As an oil oxidises (dries in the atmosphere) it produces heat, not very much but if rags are left screwed up on top of one another then the heat can build up, combined with the air trapped between the layers of rag you have the recipe for fire. The build up of heat can reach the temperature needed for combustion. 

The wood dust is dangerous purely because it's flammable. it can't spontaneously combust though, it needs a source of ignition. But again, because of the air trapped between particles it's very easily ignited. If it's suspended in the air then it can exploded with an ignition source as the dust covers a large area with lots of oxygen between the particles. 

Lots of dust that you wouldn't normally think dangerous can explode. 

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On 22/06/2020 at 04:34, shoulderpet said:

Ok so have done the finish in satin varnish looks food but it feels a bit sticky, any pointers as to where I may have gone wrong? Thanks

I’m not so sure a ‘varnish’ as used for furniture was the right choice. The Danish oil I mentioned previously would have been easier. Hope you can sort it.

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2 hours ago, mybass said:

I’m not so sure a ‘varnish’ as used for furniture was the right choice. The Danish oil I mentioned previously would have been easier. Hope you can sort it.

Have managed to sort the issue, I did some googling and the 2 main causes of a sticky finish seem to be a) humidity too high when applying   b) too much varnish applied  so I sanded off the finish and started again and this time I did the application(s) outside for lower humidity and applied the varnish much more sparingly 

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I'm a bit late to the party, and glad you've found a solution!

I used tru oil and it was pretty painless to apply if time consuming - I think I did 6 coats, rubbing in, then taking back a bit with super fine wire wool - it came out really nice and very pleasant under the fingers.

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Have decided to strip the finish and go with Danish oil, the satin finish is ok but I think the feel could be a little better.

Any tips for applying the oil?  Also maybe a silly question but I know there is a fire risk using it on rags, what about using brushes?

One final question ,after the final coat how long should I leave it before I play my bass? Instructions on Danish oil say to leave 4 to 8 hours between coats but I'm guessing this doesn't necessarily mean I can play my bass 8 hours after the final coat

Thanks

Edited by shoulderpet
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39 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Have decided to strip the finish and go with Danish oil, the satin finish is ok but I think the feel could be a little better.

Any tips for applying the oil?  Also maybe a silly question but I know there is a fire risk using it on rags, what about using brushes?

One final question ,after the final coat how long should I leave it before I play my bass? Instructions on Danish oil say to leave 4 to 8 hours between coats but I'm guessing this doesn't necessarily mean I can play my bass 8 hours after the final coat

Thanks

Use a lint free cloth and wash it out in soapy water afterwards (possibly leave it outside to dry). I did 3 coats when I did my necks, rubbing back a little with extra fine, wire wool between coats. I'd leave the final coat at least 24 hours before giving it a light, final rub down.

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7 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Use a lint free cloth and wash it out in soapy water afterwards (possibly leave it outside to dry). I did 3 coats when I did my necks, rubbing back a little with extra fine, wire wool between coats. I'd leave the final coat at least 24 hours before giving it a light, final rub down.

Ok thanks

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Ok we have a setback, i removed the bolts on the neck, there must have been a patch of varnish that I missed that had not dried sufficiently, I thought I had given it more than enough time to dry properly, the neck is glued solid into place!!!:dash1:

Im going to stick a set of the highest tension set of spare strings I have and hope the tension breaks the seal, if that doesnt work I think I might have to admit defeat and stick with the satin finish, its a decent finish anyway I just thought the Danish oil would be better

Edit: tried that didnt work, try applying force by hand, still no joy,  Satin finish it is, its certainly durable I will give them that

 

Edited by shoulderpet
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