Staining New Tuner Buttons

[martinette]

I've heard about the use of Kiwi Brown shoe polish, first buffing tuners with scotch bright pads, then applying the shoe polish for a half hour or so...and when buffed off giving an old elephant ivory look.
But that look still doesn't give that extra darker murk toward the shaft of the tuner button, where old buildup creates a darker yellow stain, similar to how bad teeth become darker toward the gums. I'm not advocating a horror movie here, but I can see how a completely even look would appear pretty fake...
So, I'm thinking of experimenting with chewing tobacco. For that extra gra-doo.
Any thoughts on expert staining? I'm running a 1935 Martin 2-20....
How about slow roasting the buggers over a flame for seconds...to help warp them a touch?

[MikeEdgerton]

I've used coffee and tea to stain instrument parts for years.

[Martin]

I've used alcohol dyes that I've purchased at a leather supply store

[Tim2723]

Have you asked around in the Building and Repairs forum?

[Paul Hostetter]

I've heard about the use of Kiwi Brown shoe polish, first buffing tuners with scotch bright pads, then applying the shoe polish for a half hour or so...and when buffed off giving an old elephant ivory look.
But that look still doesn't give that extra darker murk toward the shaft of the tuner button, where old buildup creates a darker yellow stain, similar to how bad teeth become darker toward the gums.

You just need to work on that technique more. Practice makes perfect. (And BTW, one might scuff a surface with Scotchbrite, but buffing is out of the question.)

I'm not advocating a horror movie here, but I can see how a completely even look would appear pretty fake...
So, I'm thinking of experimenting with chewing tobacco. For that extra gra-doo. Any thoughts on expert staining?

What kind of buttons are you even talking about? How old are they, what are the made of? Celluloid? Polyester? Galalith?

I'm running a 1935 Martin 2-20....

I don't think so. Martin made not a single size two in 1935, and never made a 2-20, ever. It was a theoretical possibility before 1898, but a ghost, otherwise. Check Martin Guitars: A Technical Reference, by Richard Johnston and Dick Boak. They'll help you ID what you are "running."

How about slow roasting the buggers over a flame for seconds...to help warp them a touch?

Well, "warpage" won't really equal that "old elephant ivory look" but depending on what the buttons are actually made of, but speaking of horror stories, lighting your buttons on fire will provide some temporary heat and more of a vintage look than I think you'll really want.

[Michael Lewis]

Paul, I think he is referring to a mandolin,not a guitar.

[Paul Hostetter]

Ah, you're right. Oops. Mandolins, not guitars. My apologies.

[tatwell]

To add to the good info on using tea...I experimented with this a couple years ago when I made a set of bone buttons for my mandolin. I made a strong cup of Earl Grey tea, and set some bone pieces in it for varying periods of time to see how the color would be and how deep the tea penetrated depending on soak time. The color came out to be an attractive shade of brown. If you have bone buttons this procedure may give you what you want, but I'd practice on some scrap pieces before you did the real ones.

[John Flynn]

I tried strong tea on some off-white plastic buttons, after working them over with 000 steel wool to take the shine off. I left them in the tea for a couple of days. I got a little color, but not as much as I would have liked.

[Paul Hostetter]

I think tea works great on bone—a trick I learned from Jon Lundberg about 45 years ago—but it's kind of a lost cause on plastic. I've had good luck staining galalith with Fiebing's leather dye. It goes in and doesn't rub off. But it doesn't do much on styrene.

I was serious about persisting with the technique of building up a layer of faux grime using show paste. It won't stain plastics, but it will build up in places where hand grot ends up after fifty years.