How to make black top ukulele ?

Mine is a Compass Rose. You can PM Rick, maybe he can help you out.

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Sorry about the pic, it's the only one I had on my iPad.
 
It's basically an Ebonised finish. This goes way back to the early 18 th century when the martin brothers were trying to emulate Japanese lacquer. I've done it with Shellac, staining the wood first and then applying a 'Black' Shellac on top. You build sufficient coats that you can rub back, flatten and polish to a very high gloss. The same can be done with other types of finishes - using a Black dye to tint. I assume that's what Steinway do. I'm almost certain that they are spraying, probably something like nitrocellulose.
It's a very labour intensive finish. Nothing like glossy Black to show all the defects. . . and the fingerprints.
 
Last time I mentioned Campbells Lacquer I was heavily flamed here in the Luthiers lounge, but they will mix any color you want, including black. I've had them mix custom colors for a few different projects. After filling, lay down a base coat and shoot clear over it.

I think many of the builders here use Cardinal products. You can have those tinted to any color too. Just 3x more expensive.
 
Campbells black lacquer stays soft for too long. With Campbells it helps to lay out thin coats and really let them cure before proceeding. Personally, I would not use it on an instrument.

I do black lacquer finishes using Chemcraft wash coat tinted with industrial tints, thinned about 200%-300% with acetone, then clear lacquer over. It works over metal or wood without primer, basically sticks to anything. I have been doing it this way for about the last 15 years, and am super happy with it. It is very versatile, friendly, and forgiving. The black layer is incredibly thin, so I can see it being great for an instrument finish. Also, it is tough as nails. The chemcraft wash coat dries flat, in seconds usually. You can spray to completely black in a few minutes, then start clear shortly after.

I would be curious to know how Rick did that finish, and especially curious to see his process for clean lines on that rosette. Something tells me that wasn't an entry level finish.

Black automotive paint works well for black.

The transtint dye, first applied to the wood, then in the clearcoats, I have never taken it to fully opaque, but it has a slight purple cast.

Really important to get the substrate sanded completely smooth, so when sanding or rubbing out, high spots do not become spots that need to be touched up with black.
 
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The rosette is a sticker.

The finish is polyester.


(that's about all I know about it)
 
that makes sense. I wondered if it might be a sticker, Otherwise, that is some highly specialized trickery
 
I would guess.. that is where I would start. it might be useful to carefully seal the edge of the tape with a clearcoat to prevent bleeding into the purfling.
 
Email Rick Turner...he is very helpful,when you have any kinds of questions regarding building or repair of instruments....

Gary... one of the nicest finishes on a CR yet!
 
you spraying clear Campbells? that stuff is fine, though it is not my first choice in clear nitro, for anything. I was not speaking of their clear, I was speaking of the Campbells black pigmented lacquer. It has the word 'black' on the can. It is a very heavy bodied, high solids nitro based lacquer. Because it is such a high solids product, it takes a long time, (months in my experience) to fully shrink back. It can be handled quickly, as with other lacquers, but is not fully cured. That is my experience. I have used it several times (different batches) and my application was not at fault, nor in too cold of an environment.

I have sprayed a LOT of Magnalac
 
I have used a solvent based spray paint then clear coated it but have found the lacquer will separate from the paint easily. I now use tinted lacquers from reranch. You can buff them directly or shoot a couple clear coats over it. On binding, I seal the body, mask the binding, shoot a couple coats of color, remove the masking, scrap the bindings then spray clear coats. For some reason red tends to bleed a lot worse and I end up having to spot scrap the binding. On wood bindings, I use multiple coats of shellac. You are scrapping the tint off the sealer not the binding.
 
If you were scraping, could you also scrape the shell clean? I can see scraping just a binding clean, with a slight angle off of flush with the top, but to scrape the binding, plus the shell purfling, plus the likely BWB or similar strip, then the angle goes closer to parallel with that of the top. At some point it would be easier to mask, no?

Skinny Money McGee said:
Gibson Custom shop sprays the entire body, then with a sharp scraper gently scrape the paint/stain off the binding, then clear coat.
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/video/Making Of The Gibson Cust (12)/

Never had a drying problem using Campbells in the 15 years I've been using it. They make a Nitro that can be colored or tinted as well.
Click to expand...
 
Chris_H said:
you spraying clear Campbells? that stuff is fine, though it is not my first choice in clear nitro, for anything. I was not speaking of their clear, I was speaking of the Campbells black pigmented lacquer. It has the word 'black' on the can. It is a very heavy bodied, high solids nitro based lacquer. Because it is such a high solids product, it takes a long time, (months in my experience) to fully shrink back. It can be handled quickly, as with other lacquers, but is not fully cured. That is my experience. I have used it several times (different batches) and my application was not at fault, nor in too cold of an environment.

I have sprayed a LOT of Magnalac
Click to expand...

I've never sprayed the "black label" stuff. Didn't know it existed. The place I would go, they would catalyze it and pigment it to what ever color you wanted, much like a paint store would. Magnamax and Magnaklear non yellowing UV resistant clear coat with colored finishes, and just Magnamax shooting plain clear. I would buy the Magnamax clear in 5 gallon cans, and the pigmented by the gallon. They also make nitrocellulose and polys which I have not used before.

Cardinal's website says they will mix you any color as well including metallics.


Here's a better video from Stewmac about scraping color from binding. http://youtu.be/TNbsZsSabPs No idea about the shell. A synthetic would probably scrape well.
 
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try it on a sample first. My experience with using oil as a vehicle for color is that some color is delivered on the first coat, much less on successive coats.

How black do you want it Tangimango? What are you trying to accomplish? Like the Compass Rose shown above, but with Tru-oil?

If you want it black like that compass rose, I think dyes might be difficult with an oil finish. And... will the dye yield the correct color black?

Just brainstorming.. but If I were trying for black, and an oiled finish, I might use a black oil enamel thinned a little, maybe 50/50 as a 'stain. A little Japan drier added. Sand the wood really smooth first, like 1000 grit, blocked. I would try it first to see how it looked, are you talking spruce top? I would not use a spar enamel, but would use a gloss. If you need any more black, then maybe the tru-oil would add just a teeny bit more black. Oh, wipe the black paint/ stain off a couple minutes after application.. With a thin wood such as an uke top, careful about too much saturation, and soaking through to the interior. After this dries, you can oil away...

at least one way to skin a cat..
 
There are also gunpowder blacken tops...
 
yes i will experiment with scrap wood peices. i have some englemann and sitka scraps.
thanks for the info everyone.

Chris_H said:
try it on a sample first. My experience with using oil as a vehicle for color is that some color is delivered on the first coat, much less on successive coats.

How black do you want it Tangimango? What are you trying to accomplish? Like the Compass Rose shown above, but with Tru-oil?

If you want it black like that compass rose, I think dyes might be difficult with an oil finish. And... will the dye yield the correct color black?

Just brainstorming.. but If I were trying for black, and an oiled finish, I might use a black oil enamel thinned a little, maybe 50/50 as a 'stain. A little Japan drier added. Sand the wood really smooth first, like 1000 grit, blocked. I would try it first to see how it looked, are you talking spruce top? I would not use a spar enamel, but would use a gloss. If you need any more black, then maybe the tru-oil would add just a teeny bit more black. Oh, wipe the black paint/ stain off a couple minutes after application.. With a thin wood such as an uke top, careful about too much saturation, and soaking through to the interior. After this dries, you can oil away...

at least one way to skin a cat..
Click to expand...
 
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