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Index
Finishing
The body, headstock, pickguard, control cavity cover, and neck plate were sanded with the following
grits: 100, 150, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 000 steel wool, 0000 steel wool. After sanding with
800-grit, the surfaces were wetted, which raised the grain. They were then rubbed with steel
wool. This made the wood smooth like marble. Several thin coats of tung oil were applied for a
warm satin finish. Most of the finishes sold as "tung oil" contain some tung oil, and lots of
solvents. I used Woodcraft's Tung oil finish which is 100 % pure oil. The pure oil finish contains
no petroleum distillates.
Notice the dark angled line below the farthest right tuner, and the small yellow triangle to the
right of the dark angled line. I thought that the maple headstock veneer was perfectly jointed. However,
when it was glued and clamped, and all of the ripples in the maple were flattened out, a small gap in the
veneer showed up. I mixed some sanding dust from the same piece of maple with thick luthier's crazy glue
(which is supposed to dry clear). Then I pipetted this into the gap, let it dry, and sanded it flat. It
should have dried to the same color as the veneer, but it dried darker. I guess I should have tested it
first. When I was rubbing the headstock with steel wool, a loop of the wool caught an edge of the end-grain and tore out a small triangle of veneer to the right of the previous repair. I repaired this gap with Titebond woodglue (no wood dust), and got better results.
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