Refret first, then refinish - or vice versa?

[Tate Ferguson]

I recently refretted a cheap mandolin - my first attempt - it came out well.

Now I want to refret and refinish another cheapo, for fun, for better sound, and for my education. Which should I do first - refret, or refinish?

Thanks.

[Bill McCall]

there may be a reason its called 'finish work''

[belbein]

If it were me, here's what I'd do. First, I'd get Rob's free set up book and do a set up. That will improve your education. And it will tell you if the sound can be bettered. Some of the cheap mandos can sound great--I have a cheap $69 special that sounds better than my "serious" $950 mando. Some are cheap because they sound cheap, or vice versa. On the other hand, if after set up it doesn't sound great, then you know how much time to put in to refinishing.*

If the set up worked and it's worth really investing time in refinishing, I'd refret before I refinished. That would give me a chance to learn refretting without having to worry about destroying my beautiful new finish.

And then for finish I'd learn French Polish. I'm in the minority here, but I find it gives me a non-toxic, non-technically-demanding, incredibly deep lustrous finish. It's like meditation working on an FP finish. Ommmmmmmmmm. (Unless it dimples, pimples, fish-eyes, clouds or pits. And then it's ... not-mmmm. More like Dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn.)
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*Although, if you were like me, you'd find every excuse to put stupid amounts of time into POS instruments just because I wanted to learn a new technique.

[Nevin]

Since re-fretting can damage the finish on the neck, I would re-fret first.

[Andy Miller]

Definitely refret first if the fingerboard is unbound. If it's bound, a refret is less invasive to the finish, but it is still a bummer to hit a fret end a little too hard and chip finish off the binding underneath it.

[Tate Ferguson]

Thanks, folks.