Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey Guys,
Although I am pretty confident of the answer, I thought I would get some
more opinions.

I like the look of a bridge that has finish on it to pop the grain a bit. By
this I mean, boiled linseed oil or tung oil - basically, one of the
penetrating oils. I have heard of a number of luthiers doing this for the
fretboard and bridge. I have used Tru Oil which is a formulation of drying
and penetrating oils. Lots of folks use it for gunstocks and it also is a
great finish for making a very fast neck. It is an excellent product for this
particular application.

I buff out with 0000 steel wool. So it looks like a buffed out bridge but
the grain and color is more prominent - it is a very nice look.

I have only done this for my newest batch and I wiped only one coat of
the Tru Oil on after the bridge was glued. I am thinking it will be much
easier to treat my bridges and buff them out to a nice satin sheen before
they are glued.

So here is my question: Do you think this will interefer with the glue joint
to the soundboard? I would follow up the single finish application with
contouring the bottom of the bridge to match my soundboard radius - so
I would be thoroughly sanding the bottom of the bridge after it had been
treated.

I am thinking that this should be absolutely fine and that there will not be
an issue. But I thought I would get as many opinions as possible.
Hopefully, you all will agree. If not, perhaps explain why you think there
might be a problem.

The Tru Oiled bridge is a really nice look and I am hoping that I can
continue to do it .

Thanks,
Simon

Most of the wood we use for bridges has a enough natural oils in them, that if you just buff them out, you'd be surprised how much the wood pops. I use micromesh all the way up and you'd swear there was a finish on the wood. I think most people avoid the finish on the bridge to avoid any extra weight and possible sound dampening.

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

I would not think that the weight and damping you'd add by finishing the bridge would be enough to matter, but who can say for sure?

So long as the oil has dried, so that there's no chance of smearing it around on the glue surface, I don't see why you could not finish them off the guitar. I French polish mine, sticking them onto a curved piece of wood underneath with double stick tape so I can hold on. It doesn't take long to get a nice shine.

Thanks folks, I appreciate the help.

Joe, I agree if you polish a bridge up nicely that it does look very nice -
but there is noticeable difference (in my opinon) in the beauty of wood
before and after it has some sort of finish on it. Up until this point, I
haven't used any type of oil or finish but I really do like the looks.

Alan, I would French polish mine but I use a pinless bridge and since
shellac doesn't penetrate the wood much at all, I figure it wouldn't take
long for scratches to occur.

Even though I don't think there is anything to worry about - I really would
like to rule out any possible problems. So what I've done tonight is douse
one side of a .125" thick piece of imbuya with the TruOil. I will let it dry
thoroughly and then saw it down the middle and then rejoin. This will
allow me to see how much just one application penetrates the surface of
the wood and will let me see if I still get a proper glue joint. I will post
my results in a couple days.

And I am probably being too cautious but it is such a critical joint and one
that you don't want failing on you.

Thanks again,
Simon

Hesh,
I might be French Polishing a guitar in the next month or so - and if I
indeed decide to do one, I will remember to snap some photos for a
pictorial. I really enjoy the process and the look and feel of French Polish
is unrivaled in my mind - but it is just so EASY to send it off to Addam
Stark and, in the interum, I get to work on another batch of guitars.

Peace Out,
Simon

   I am a fan of buffing and waxing. Ebony buffs out so nicely and with a few minutes on the buffer the ebony glistens. If you ad a finish you run a chance of scratches showing.
   I also use kiwi shoe polish wax , brown on lighter woods and black on ebony.
john hall