Practice in finishing

I am new to wood working in general, and lutherie in particular. I plan to experiment and practice different finishing techniques on lots of scrap wood that I will purchase tomorrow.

The question............ if I am looking to see a staining effect on mahogany, must I use a solid mahogany board, or would I get the same visual from a less expensive piece of Mahogany plywood?

Sorry gentlemen, unfortunately there is no "Beginner's Luthier" forum to place this question.

Was my question that stupid? Please....................have mercy and patience and please answer. I appreciate it.

D

Not stupid. I would expect plywood and solid mahogany are both excellent practice pieces.

And they may take stain the same and they may not.

And a lot of stains are incompatible with a lot of finishes...

And then there's the matter of how you intend to apply the stain and the finish.

You might want to go over to the Stewart Macdonald site and read up on guitar finishing there. That's a good place to start, at least.

You're opening Pandora's box, but welcome!

Thank you Gentlemen. My Journey begins !

Rick does the very best Polyester Finish in the business...you are so lucky he helping you out...
pretty sure he knows everything you need to know...

You may also want to join the Guild of American Luthiers in Tacoma, Washington (Google it). This is a world wide network of luthiers organization which has 4 major publications a year to its members. There are at present 114 quarterly journals available with more information than you can shake a spruce stick at. If you are serious about luthiery, I strongly suggest a membership.

Thanks for the kudos on my finishing. It's been a long journey...and a constant battle!

The materials and techniques I use are really not for home or even casual professional use. I have a fully legal spray booth, I wear a respirator and full Tyvek suit, and the finishes I use have to be very carefully mixed (they're catalyzed), stored using an inert gas "blanket" on the surface of the material in an opened can, and we go through a lot of very expensive progressively finer grits of sandpaper before buffing.

I am liking Cardinal's satin nitro lacquer over polyester for that softer sheen look, but still, I'm using an epoxy sealer, a urethane isolator, polyester sanding sealer and then my top coats. Don't try this at home!

BlackBearUkes said:

You may also want to join the Guild of American Luthiers in Tacoma, Washington (Google it). This is a world wide network of luthiers organization which has 4 major publications a year to its members. There are at present 114 quarterly journals available with more information than you can shake a spruce stick at. If you are serious about luthiery, I strongly suggest a membership.

Click to expand...

I just joined the GAL. Thanks for the advise.

I stripped down my makala baritone to the bare laminate agathis (People say it looks like mahogany since they're related, right?). Anyway, applying a teak stain to it really brings out the wood's natural colour in my opinion.