ChuckBarnett
Well-known member
I'm not even going to mention all the feelings I have experienced the past day or so. I'm humbling myself again to ask for help. Please tell me it gets better.
I was excited that the uke is in the finishing stage. I had bought and applied 3 coats of Aqua Coat as a pore-filler (with little understanding of what that even means or looks like). Looked good to me. Somebody said use a foam brush to apply Tru-Oil. I watched a video where Robbie O'Brien said "wipe it on and get away from it". Then watched one, suggested here, by somebody who makes Mye Moa ukuleles. That was very helpful and it was then that I realized that the end goal drives your choices about how to apply Tru-Oil. Glossy versus not glossy. That may explain the differences.
I did 3 coats of Aqua Coat because that's what I saw on a video, again, not realizing that Koa isn't the same as Rosewood. (I have since learned that it's one of the species with the biggest pores!) I showed the instrument to a guy locally who observed that it didn't look like it was pore-filled. He then showed me a couple of his guitars and then I could see the purpose of pore-filling. I realized that I could have put any number of coats of Aqua Coat and not stopped with 3. But, again, it looked good to me... (not having any clue what I was doing).
I slathered on 3 coats of the Tru-Oil and thinking that I had adequate"build" so as to "level sand" which I did.
Things were still going okay I thought. I spotted a horizontal line, somewhat of a low spot about and inch or so long and decided to take care of it at this early point. Used a scraper and then 0000 steel wool. Hit it with a coat of Tru-Oil and then 2 more, all 3 were rubbed in more like French polish, which was what I did on my other uke successfully.
From the photos you can see the color difference compared to the surrounding area. You might also see that I've successfully removed a LOT of wood! And perhaps you can see that there are still imperfections in the wood. Different ones that weren't there earlier.
Is the fact that I've blown through the layer that had the Aqua Coat to reason for the difference in color and the lack of any glossiness at all?
Can I take the whole top down with a random orbital sander and start over? At the least, can I sand to blend in that low area with adjacent areas?
When I'm done with this, I'm going to compile a list of the things I have redone. There are mistakes from my first one I didn't make this time; no need -I made plenty of new ones!
I take up way too much time with my stuff on this forum. Apologies!
I was excited that the uke is in the finishing stage. I had bought and applied 3 coats of Aqua Coat as a pore-filler (with little understanding of what that even means or looks like). Looked good to me. Somebody said use a foam brush to apply Tru-Oil. I watched a video where Robbie O'Brien said "wipe it on and get away from it". Then watched one, suggested here, by somebody who makes Mye Moa ukuleles. That was very helpful and it was then that I realized that the end goal drives your choices about how to apply Tru-Oil. Glossy versus not glossy. That may explain the differences.
I did 3 coats of Aqua Coat because that's what I saw on a video, again, not realizing that Koa isn't the same as Rosewood. (I have since learned that it's one of the species with the biggest pores!) I showed the instrument to a guy locally who observed that it didn't look like it was pore-filled. He then showed me a couple of his guitars and then I could see the purpose of pore-filling. I realized that I could have put any number of coats of Aqua Coat and not stopped with 3. But, again, it looked good to me... (not having any clue what I was doing).
I slathered on 3 coats of the Tru-Oil and thinking that I had adequate"build" so as to "level sand" which I did.
Things were still going okay I thought. I spotted a horizontal line, somewhat of a low spot about and inch or so long and decided to take care of it at this early point. Used a scraper and then 0000 steel wool. Hit it with a coat of Tru-Oil and then 2 more, all 3 were rubbed in more like French polish, which was what I did on my other uke successfully.
From the photos you can see the color difference compared to the surrounding area. You might also see that I've successfully removed a LOT of wood! And perhaps you can see that there are still imperfections in the wood. Different ones that weren't there earlier.
Is the fact that I've blown through the layer that had the Aqua Coat to reason for the difference in color and the lack of any glossiness at all?
Can I take the whole top down with a random orbital sander and start over? At the least, can I sand to blend in that low area with adjacent areas?
When I'm done with this, I'm going to compile a list of the things I have redone. There are mistakes from my first one I didn't make this time; no need -I made plenty of new ones!
I take up way too much time with my stuff on this forum. Apologies!