Official Luthiers Forum!

I'd like to build an L-00 style guitar one day and wondered about a black top stain that folks have used under Tru-Oil. Anyone with positive experiences staining spruce? Any particular black stains that folks like? Trans-Tint has a solid reputation but I've never used it on spruce.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I've used several black stains under Tru Oil, though none of them on spruce. I stain a lot of banjo rims black, and have used Tru Oil a lot on banjos (although I mostly french polish). The problem that I've encountered with all of the stains when using Tru Oil is that wiping the finish on tends to dissolve the stain to some degree and wipe a lot of it off. On banjo rims, I like this effect because it stays black but shows grain highlights through. On spruce, I doubt that I'd be happy with it. But I've used Trans Tint, Fiebings black leather dye, and a couple of aniline dyes. The Fiebings seems to stay blacker (again on maple), but still wipes off to some degree when wiping on the finish.

I've also tried mixing black dye in with Tru Oil like one might do with lacquer. It worked OK.

I'd think about spraying a black coat of lacquer first, instead of dying the spruce. Then follow with the Tru Oil as a top coat. The black lac wouldn't wipe away.

Dave

Some gun stock finishers spray Truoil. If you have a small compressor you could buy a cheap jamb gun from Harbor Freight and spray the first few coats of Truoil, level sand, and then French polish the the remaining coats. I like to "mist on" light coats of finish over soluble stains so they don't dissolve and move from where I put them. Once they are under a few coats of finish, rubbing on more top coats is usually not a problem.
If you don't have a compressor you could use a spray can of Bullseye shellac to lock in the stain - again, mist on several light coats and level sand before rubbing on additional coats of Truoil.

I have sprayed Trans Tint in shellac for color then finished with TruOil. Worked pretty well but I'd test on scrap first.

I also tried stain in the TruOil but could not get enough color. Staining the wood directly (maple) looked blotchy on the one I did.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

When I do a burst or painted/ stained top I like to first lay down a couple of coats of clear finish to seal the surface to avoid a blotchy appearance.
Mixing the stain/pigment into the solvent with just enough finish added to act as a binder can help build color without building finish thickness.

Lots of good ideas in here. Thanks! I appreciate it.

I have a bunch of Preval sprayers somewhere in my shop and I may give that a try on scrap first. I'll also try some of the different sealing ideas too.

I wanted a black finish under satin Osmo oil and had problems with the Osmo wiping the stain off, etc. and also found some of the black stains aren't really black. Then someone suggested Indian Ink. It worked really well. Of course this isn't spruce, but you could try it on scrap and Indian Ink isn't expensive and a little goes a ong way.

This was the first thing that came to mind when I read this. While I havent used India ink on soft woods like Spruce, I have used it on Maple, Poplar, and Walnut (I know, sacreligious) to dye furniture parts black and it works very well. I use Speedball brand India ink. Once it dries, I can wipe on oil or water based finishes without the ink smearing or bleeding into the finish. I imagine Tru Oil should be no different. I think a 16 ounce bottle is something like $25 on Amazon.

Thanks for the reminder that black isn't always black. Gonna check out the India ink.

By the way, cool looking bass! Love tortoise over black on Fender-y style instruments.