Finish on a water based stain

[Tim Saxton]

I have a mandolin in the white that is about ready for stain. I have decided to go with a water based stain from stew-mac.

I have no experience in this area and will be working with a luthier that has finished one mandolin with this type of stain and the used an aerosol lacquer.

What is the best procedure to get this mandolin stained and then finished. I understand that there are 3 basic types; French polish, Varnish, and Lacquer.

Any help and input here would be great. I want to do a good job as this will be my first of many I am sure.

Tim Saxton

[Stephanie Reiser]

well, I would not use a water-based stain because of raising the grain issues. I prefer an alchohol stain from Garrett Wade. Then I went with the spray laguer.
Just my .02 but then, i only built one mandolin so far.
Stephanie

[Troyer]

I have not used water based stain on a mandolin, but I did use it on a big entertainment center that I built, and about messed the whole project up. It raised the grain real bad. It was oak so not sure if that makes a difference. I would do some more research before using. Good luck. Don

[peter.coombe]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using water based analine stains. In fact they are probably preferable because they are more colour fast than alcohol based stain. Of course water will raise the grain. Just let it dry and then sand it back with fine sand paper and go to the next step. Gilchrist uses water based stains. I rest my case.

[bobz]

I agree with peter. Another thing you can do is pre raise the grain by lightly damping the instrument with a clean rag soaked in water and wrung out well. Don`t get the rag soaking wet, just damp. When completely dry sand just enough to remove the fuzz with the last grade of abrasive you used to finish sand the instrument. You can do this twice if you like, this will reduce the amount of grain raising when you apply your stain. After staining I use a product here in the UK called Scotch Brite Pads. This will remove the slight fuzz without fear of sanding through the stain. If you use abrasive, sand very lightly.

[Ken]

I've also used water based stains with good results, one thing I learned the hard way though was not to use steel wool to cut back the raised grain, the oil in the steel wool will cause adhesion problems with your sealer. The Scotch Brite pads recommended by bobz are fine.
Ken.

[amowry]

I would strongly recommend water-based dyes if you are using shellac or spirit varnish base coats, because these tend to cause alcohol-based dyes to bleed. The grain raising isn't much of an issue, and it's a good idea to raise the grain at some point in the process anyway.

[Ed Ashley]

What Peter, and Bob, and Andrew said. Even with water as the carrier for the stain, I notice some color coming off on my dob for the first coat of shellac sealer or two. (I am going to try brushing the sealer coats in the future.) I like the way you can hand rub variations and shadings in color. I used Color Tone liquid stain from StewMac, it doesn't take much, and it can also be put into the shellac (vintage amber in my case) for a little additional coloration, especially for a blonde top.

[Tim Saxton]

Thanks for all your replys.

Andrew I played your #5 mandolin at Greg Boyds booth in Darrington Wa. WOW. What a mando! If I could get up the money I would buy it. Do you do custom orders?

I have an idea on the color I want. My next question is: Can anyone suggest a method to get a satin like finish on it? What materials and methods would be prefered?

Tim

[amowry]

Thanks Tim, I'm glad you liked it! Greg has been a great resource for me here. I'm doing a custom order now, and I'm hoping to do many more (forever the optimist)!

I think mimf.com has some info on satin finishes in the library section.

[Tim Saxton]

I think I want to finish it with TRU-OIL. Has there been any issues with that oil finish over a water based dye?

Can anyone give out any pointers on how to use tru-oil?
From what I can gleen it seems like a very good product for the newbie. Are there any tricks to this stuff?

Tim Saxton

[Ed Ashley]

The LMI website has a discussion on finishes, including comments on Tru-Oil. http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/FinishOverview.htm

their old print catalog/ring notebook had a series of articles on finishing, including one long on french polishing by Eugene Clark, the above text looks newer to me, maybe it replaces the articles.