StewMac Kit Finishing question.

So, I'm moving along building a StewMac Soprano Kit I received for Xmas. If all continues to go well, I should be onto the finishing part in a week or two.

I want a gloss finish. I want to try the StewMac brush on varnish to avoid buying spray equipment just now. I'm thinking of using a grain filler, which leads to my question. Which color would be best on the mahogany? My guess is the medium brown, but I could see the natural as an option. At this point I'm not sure what the difference in finish would be.

Another question I have involves stain. If I were to stain this kit, how does one keep the plastic in the rosette from picking up the stain color?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm in the midst of finishing a Stew-Mac tenor kit, so maybe I can help.

I don't recommend Stew-Mac's bruch-on lacquer. I used it on the soprano kit I built last year, and it was a pain in the butt to sand out the brush marks. Took lots and lots of coats to get a level finish. This time I used the Stew-Mac nitrocellulose lacquer in the spray cans. Much better and faster, but still not HVLP quality. Next time I'm springing for the sprayer.

I stained both instruments with a brown mahogany stain. Apply the stain right over the rosette, then scrape it off using an exacto knife after the stain dries.

I used the darker brown pore filler from LMI. It's messy, but it gives a nice contrast to the lighter wood.

Hope this helps.

If I were doing it, I would use Tru-Oil for a matte finish--but you want gloss, so...

No question that the best approach is with a sprayer. And, the more money you invest, the more that you can get into production quality finishes (we currently use the same UV-cured Poly that Taylor Instruments uses). But, you can get great results using much more approachable finishes such as nitrocellulose lacquer or water-based lacquer. And, while a sprayer is best, you can get the same quality finish using the spray cans. The quality of the finish is mostly a function of your prep work, your level sanding in between coats, and your final sanding & buffing. Better sprayers & equipment result in less time spent leveling/sanding/buffing, but not necessarily a better finish.

I agree with mzuch--if I were doing a one-off instrument, I would do the nitro in the spray can. I would do a total of 15-18 light coats, level sanding in between every 4-6 coats.

Hey Gordon/Char: Great to see you here on the forum. Your Stew-Mac DVD was a big help in showing me the right ways to do things when building the kit. Definitely saved me from some mistakes. But I sure wish I had your tools and workshop!

I thought that name looked familiar, I was watching that DVD just last night in prepping for my upcoming fret working.

Zombie...

Did you ever finish this kit? What route did you follow with finishing? Did you end up using the grain filler?

Post some pics if you have a chance too!

Yeah I'm woefully remiss in documenting this project. I did not go with a stain this time around. I finally decided the natural wood looked pretty cool.

For finish I decided to set the bar high and I'm using KTM-9 applied by brush. I started with LMI's microbead filler in mahogany. Thinking I was smart, I went pretty heavy with the stuff. After it dried and I spent hours sanding did I realize why it is best to scrape it then before it dries. Some things I seem to only learn the hard way.

Last night I level sanded my first few coats of KTM-9 and then recoated as thin as I could. It's looking pretty good, but it's still going to take a while longer. To kill the time between drying coats and what not I have started on a blackwalnut Hana Lima tenor kit. For this one, I do think I want to try the Tru-Oil finish.

I'll try to get some pictures of the finish on the Stew-Mac this week.