Martin finish Question

lefty dan

lefty dan

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Hi All,
Martin says that the finish on there ukulele is hand rubbed. Its not shiny. I want to do the same finish on mine. Do you know what hand rubbed finish Martin uses?? Could it be tongue oil or something like that??
Thanks for the help.
Dan
 
lefty dan said:
Hi All,
Martin says that the finish on there ukulele is hand rubbed. Its not shiny. I want to do the same finish on mine. Do you know what hand rubbed finish Martin uses?? Could it be tongue oil or something like that??
Thanks for the help.
Dan
Click to expand...
Maybe "Shellac" ?.
 
This is a term luthiers use for a satin finish. If you are good with a spray gun you can get this finish out of the can. I only know 2 people who can do this - one was a car body finisher and the other a furniture finisher.

Hand rubbing involves manipulating the final finish usually with Behlen's Wool Lube and 0000 wire wool. However I have discovered Abralon is great for this and use 2000 on my hand-rubbed finishes. I'm spraying multiple thin coats of cellulose over 2 coats vinyl sealer - two full strength, three 70/30 hard flatted and finally, four 50/50. This puts a very thin finish on the uke and is great for that authentic vintage look. I'll lay down three more 50/50 for a bright finish after a fine cutting and flatting with 600.

This is totally contrary to how most people spray cellulose. When I was building and designing furniture my spray finishers used french polish techniques to get a good, thin build. My method aims to follow that. Also, because the lacquer is thin, it flows out very evenly and there is less time spent rubbing out.
 
"This is a term luthiers use for a satin finish."

Then again there are satin finishes in which a flattening agent is added to the material.

On their guitars Martin sprays 9 coats on the backs and sides and 8 coats on the top. I get by with six but it ain't for the faint of heart. Conscious sanding is the key.
 
Martin finish

The Martin ukulele Im talking about is the made in Mexico, so ukulele. I like the look and think I can get it by tru oil and then 0000 steel wool. Or maybe t- oil.
Im going to do another Stew Mac soprano and try to make it like the Martin.
The last one I did sounds good but I put binding on it and I like the plain look. So the next will not have binding.
 
The truoil finish will not replicate what is achieved with a spray gun using lacquer... two entirely different beasts. And there is a real trick to using tru-oil that Willima King cracked.

That lacquer thing is a real 'ballet'. Have you read the Sands method Chuck? LMII used to publish a catalogue that you had to buy if you wanted stuff from them. It was full of luthiers' techniques...
 
French padding.

I think you're talking about a process referred to as "french padding". It involves a padding lacquer, some balled up cotton, and an outer wrap, whose material escapes me now, and you brush on and off, in a "touch and go landing" fashion. Great finish, easily done at home, WITH PROPER VENTALATION. You can burn through the finish during the process, so practice first. Try a furniture finishing book from the library.
 
also reffered to as french polish

This is what I do on some of mine.
You just need alchol, oil and shellac. Basically you wipe on a base of shellac all in same direction, thin coat. Then use fine 0000 steelwool to take out any runs. Then the fun beguins. Use old teeshirt material or wool for the wad, the middle part, wrap a single layer of tee shirt material around this and pull it tight. Then you apply shellac to wet the pad, vary sparingly about 10-12 drops. Now you rub in a circular or figure eight pattern on the finish. Press fairly hard, not enought to crack the uke! while rubbing. The finish drys almost instantly, when you feel the pad is starting sticking, put on a drop of mineral oil. keep on doing this. waiting 1/2 hr or so between rubbing sessions
, soon you will se a nice shiny uke. to dull it to satin just use a light rubbing of steel wool.
I now use minwax sanding as the base coat and french polish over it or water base poly.
The nice thing about french polish is it is thin, the coats blend into one as you apply it, very easy to fix.
There are several websites giving details with pictures,
main problem takes practice and problems applying in high humidity.
Before the 1900's all Martins were french polished, but the didn't start making ukes tell 1915 or so by then they were using lacquer or something.
 
Here's a tip I learned from Ken Potts for French Polishing. Use Everclear if you can get it. It's 190 proof. I ordered a case of it on the Internet for a French polishing workshop we did. It works MUCH better and doesn't drag at all.
Bad thing about FP is that it doesn't hold up well and needs constant attention if the instrument is played frequently. Not hard to touch up but still a nuisance. It's beautiful and a highly valued finish with luthiers getting a lot more money for it because it takes so long to do well. Ideal for the occasional builder who lives in a restricted envronment.
 
I've heard the Everclear trick too. And you can buy it in Wisconsin! And as Jerry Lee Lewis said "What's made Milwaukee famous, has made a loser out of me"
 
tongue oil

What can you tell me about tongue oil? For some reasion I have it stuck in my head that I can wife it on and then done if looking for a matt finish.
I know there must be more to it.
Dan
 
I believe pure Tung oil is not recommended as a finish. It takes a very long time to dry and will sink into the wood, making it considerably darker in colour. It also won't prevent the surface from becoming grubby. In it's polymerised state it will harden and is used as such as a component of other finishes such as Danish oil.

One of the easiest finishes to apply is Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil. It's sold as a gunstock finish and is also a polymerised oil. It can be used for a whole instrument and by applying many thin coats (up to 3 a day) can be flattened and buffed to a high gloss. Or forr a satin finish you can finish off with superfine steel wool. It's highly recommended as a finish for necks on guitars and basses as it feels great and produces a very 'fast' finish.
 
tru oil

I used tru oil on my Stew Mac kit it turned out very nice.

just like to know what is use on the Martins. Seems we can guess but I may call Martin and see what they tell me.
 
You can save yourself the agony of getting a good french polish finish with this product:

MasterGel.jpg


It is a simple yet effective finish that can be used as a grain filler (sand and apply at the same time with 400 grit to create a slurry which you work into the grain similar to pore filling with a paste filler) and a top coating. Stewmac used to sell it as an alternative finish but now don't.

I've used it for my stompboxes and it works fine. I would strongly suggest this as the alternate choice to an oil finish.
 
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