Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all,
Thought I'd share a new rosette I'm trying out for a guitar I'm building for a friend. It is a new technique I learned from Michael Bashkin of bashkinguitars.com. Can anyone guess the method for getting this sunburst look on this rosette? It is Koa with a light coat of shellac on it.



Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

my guess is hot sand.

dean

_________________
Dean

Don't know the method, but it looks really nice.

Great job Tracy.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

It looks very cool. But I would guess with Hesh, Fire/flame?

Very good Dean, it is hot sand! Rolling it through hot sand vertically does this. You can increase the flame on the rosette by adding more sand so it covers more of the rosette as you roll it through. Very cool technique. I'll be doing this on the Koa endwedge also to give it a matching affect. Thanks for all the nice comments!
Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Very cool look Tracy. I saw David Marks use the heated sand to color some leaves used for marquetry.

_________________
nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Thanks for shown us that. I learn something new here every day.

_________________
Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

I really like that. I'm working on a design that's asymetrical, too. Thinner
bans on the inside, wider on the outside. My inside will probably be
black, red, black, all .010", and the outside will be rosewood, unknown,
rosewood, all .020". I'm looking for a wood that has a color value
somewhere between maple and koa for the middle.

Anyway, I really like the shading effect. Can you say more about hot
sand? I've never heard of it.

Sunburst Rosette!

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I knew you'd like that Colin May even call it the "Colin Special"

James, the hot sand technique just means to get about 1 cup of sand from wherever, and put it in a pan. Heat it up over the stove until it is extremely hot. Then roll the rosette in the hot sand until cooked, I mean done. Just wear some cloth gloves so your hands don't burn. Does that explain? I like your idea of a rosette. Maybe mahogany or Eucalyptus may work for you?
Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

The only problems i've ever had with the hot sand technique is that it drains 100% of moisture out of the wood. your rosette (or other inlay)  may be smaller from shrinkage as a result.

Dean

_________________
Dean

hmmm... I wonder then... how could you also achieve this look on the interior as well.

I bet you could make a "little sand box" to fit on your bending pipe and get that effect from both sides.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I like sunbursts a lot so I like that effect a lot. Thanks Tracy. I got to try this!
It looks really cool!

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Hey...

Is this color just on the surface? How far does it go into the wood? Meaning if you leave the rosette proud of the top and then sand it does it sand off?

And I guess the same concerns would be there during finish sanding.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Man that's a cool looking effect.  Very subtle.

How do people think of these things?

Thanks guys! Brock, very cool idea on how to sunburst a whole guitar using this method. You could just create a 20" x 20" sand pit and put some propane burners under it. Then just burn the sides to the depth you want. the burn does go all the way through the wood, so if you sand it, it does not sand off. However, it will sand off in areas that are further in because it is not burned all the way through. Not sure it will work for bursting a whole guitar. I would inlay the rosette slightly lower than flush, then sand down to the rosette and stop as soon as you touch the rosette. I haven't inlayed this rosette yet, but I will put in in a test top first. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Well... that is a good idea too, but what I meant was if you want to acheive the burst look on the interior edge of the rosette you might be able to rig up some kind of curved sandbox (as in on your bending pipe) that would let you work the inside of the ring to match the outside.

thanks for showing us this. I am definitely interested to see how this executes and hearing about what nuances there are to getting it inlaid and finish sanded.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Nice looking rosette! The sand technique is very common in marquetry, a guy at the education I was in did this cabinet using the technique A LOT! Just thought id show these pics...









What can you say, 1050(!) hours!! His website: http://kjetilharket.no/en/

That is a nice effect. Personally, I wouldn't use the term "sunburst" to describe it. I despise sunbursts, but I also think the term is somewhat overused. That is to say, there are various subtle and tasteful toning and shading techniques I've seen that are very nice and which I think have a very different aesthetic effect than a true sunburst (i.e. they don't make me nauseous like sunbursts, black light posters, velvet paintings, and the like ). This, to me, is one of those - a nice, tasteful shading effect.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd, good point on the terminology. I just couldn't think of a word that described it. But I really like "shading" as the right term for this. At our Luthiers meeting we discussed using different types of wood, and it was brought up that using highly figured woods in this technique actually brings out the figure more. I would suspect that a high flamed piece of Koa or Maple would look fantastic.
Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Awesome! pike and perch marquetry!

Very cool and really well done.

_________________
http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Todd, you don't like paintings on velvet? I don't get that....



You ever see a burst done by Kim Walker? Really nice stuff...not at all overpowering.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."