Finish Cracking that's Not Phony-Looking!

Hi All-

I am seeing some relics with finish cracking that looks like a jigsaw puzzle. Big random "pieces".

But the vintage guitars I've looked at have finer cracks that are parallel to each other, going across the grain. Like this one.

I want the more realistic pattern! How to ensure the finer, more correct pattern? Any tips for avoiding the jigsaw pattern?

Guitar is nitro-finished BSB.

Me thinks the forced premature "cracking" could come out either way- realistic or phoney. It's the luck of the draw. Obviously if you want realistic, you have to get there the same way all the old guitars did. Wait.

Well, not just wait. You have to do the stupid stuff we all did. Leave it in the truck when it's 110 degrees and take it into an air conditioned bar and/or then leave it too long in sub freezing areas of the bus or trunk of a car and then take it into a hot bar and open the case immediately. Lather, rinse, repeat about 1000 times over a period of 30 years.

There is a video (either on the Gibson website or youtube) of Tom Murphy at NAMM demonstrating how he does it....each crack is cut by hand with a razor.

I have one guitar with finish cracks... It's a 1968 Gibson. When I bought it in the early 90's it didn't have any cracks... now they're all over the place. They also run with the grain of the wood for the most part... longitudinally as it were. I guess I leave it out of the case more then any of the previous owners?

The best way to do it I think (being a furniture maker and restorer too) you really must have the nitro cured a good long time (By this I mean a minimum of 6 months, preferably a year or more). Then repeated heating and cooling cycles. Leave it in the sun, put it in the freezer, pull it back out and put it in the warmest place in the house. Leave it in the trunk in the middle of winter for a day, bring it into the house where there's a fire kickin hard.

I think a lot of relics get hit with the cold air treatment and the nitro hasn't bonded completely to the wood and all the layers have not really settled. The finish then cracks in it's own pattern, not with the grain or against the grain of the wood, but within it's own structure.