Official Luthiers Forum!

There are always threads on the forum posted on the subject of finishing and the troubles encountered in finishing. Over many years of finishing jewelry boxes and now four years of finishing guitars, it has been my experience that this may be the most difficult of our skill for beginners to master, or at least be truly satisfied with their efforts. Most luthiers look at everything they do with a very critical eye. This is a good thing! However a new builder should not expect perfection on their first, second or even tenth guitar. After all everything we do in life is a learning process, and luthierie is far from the exception.

I have noticed that there are several basic pitfalls that many new builders fall into when finishing their first few guitars. Below are a couple of big ones IMO that come to my mind and my thoughts on how they can be lessened, if not avoided.

Pit fall #1 Practice!!!!!
The biggest error I see newbie’s make is not knowing the technique they intend to employ, and wanting that new guitar in their hands as soon as possible. Inevitably in their rush to get the job done they over look the basic experience that one week of practice on scrap wood would have given them. I can’t stress this point enough. No-matter if you are French polishing, padding, brushing or spraying, with out at least some point of reference to judge what is happening by, as you apply the finish, you are doomed to unexpected (on you your behalf) problems that are most likely to eat-up more time than the practice would have required.

Pit fall#2 Choosing the best application based on skill
I have read a lot stating that this method or another method is the simplest method for beginners to attempt. The truth of the mater is there is no easy method to apply a high quality finish. Some say that French polish is the best finish for a beginner to attempt. I agree with this statement because I feel the builder will learn more about the way a finish should be built than with any other method, and it is a finish that can be repaired with the least amount of skill. On the other hand I am not saying it is an easy finish. In fact It may be the most labor intensive finishes you can do.

I have also read that brushing is the simplest for beginners. Here again not necessarily true. Brushing on shellac, nito or waterborne, finish requires skill a beginner is not likely to have without practice. They need to know things that are not self evident in the term brushing on, For instance, you do not brush on, you flow out, how to adjust your stoke to the flow of the finish, never back brush, What is the best brush to use and what brushes not to use. I could go on for quite some time and only touch on just the bare minimum of skills required.

In conclusion, if I could give a new builder one special gem of wisdom before starting their first finish, it would be. “ choose the type of finish you want, study the procedure for applying that finish, know the characteristics of the wood you are applying the finish to, practice the technique till you are comfortable with you ability to carry it off, take the time to do it right, and last but not least don’t settle for half good but except that your first finish will not be your best finish."

Michael Payne
MichaelP38616.6191203704

If you don't experiment on scrap, you'll be experimenting on your project.

I sign each top I build with a phrase I got from a wise old music teacher when I was a young boy. It can be applied to anything you want master.

"The quality of your performance is directly proportional to the quantity of your practice"MichaelP38616.6717361111

I have a beautiful collection of finely finish pieces of scrap. If only I could finish a real instrument as well. Scrap is usually flat and smaller than the actual instrument. It does not have a sound hole or a binding material with different properties on the edge. For example many of the pore filling techinques say that you should squeege the material across the grain with a credit card. I've never been able to fill the sides at the waist this way. I get huge ridges. I didn't know I didn't know this because none of my scap pieces were curved like that. Filling the pores on the neck was a nightmare.

I rarely have problems with the flat smooth parts. It's the transitions and curved parts that cause all the problems.

I'm tempted to throw together a guitar body using B grade woods with a very thick top and back that I can sand down again and again to try out various finsihing techniques.

Great idea Mike. I thin and bend sides out rements and practice on them as well as curved boxes made of pine and bass wood.