neck finish question...

guitar slinger · January 20th, 2008, 07:26 PM

Just bought a Warmoth vintage construction Korina neck with pau ferro fret board ( no finish ). I have a finished walnut body ( nitro ) Id like to match the finish on as much as possible. Any suggestions on putting a finish on it such as product, prep, application etc? thanks

boris bubbanov · January 20th, 2008, 09:59 PM

I suggest you shape the korina as you see fit with a 1/4 sheet random orbit sander with dust collector, start at 100, then 150, 220, 320, 400.
Once you have the reshaped areas as you like 'em continue on all the korina you can get to without disturbing the pao ferro with 600, 800. You can run over onto the pau ferro on the optional 1000 and 1200, all dry sand.
Wipe real clean, then use the blue masking tape to tape off the pau ferro. Drill a 5/32nds hole (offline with the truss rod) between the four existing holes, and insert a # 10 deck screw with the point ground down, keeping track of how far you can go safely. Once tight, clamp a big vice grips on that and use that as your handle. Now, misting at first, letting the nitro soak into the korina, apply some Deft clear gloss nitro, $ 4.84 per can at Lowe's. A little more each go round. I do one 'face' at a time and let the nitro level with the benefit of the horizon.
I did eight necks today, 2 strat and six Tele, 3 of which were Squier 51 maples, 1 USACG maple Strat, the rest mixed maple and rosewood from Warmoth. Used 2 cans of Deft, leaving a 1/4 unused at the bottom. I will redo 2 of the eight 'cause I got distracted by the football game, but those are good odds.
Leave it alone overnight. You can install the tuners next day, and the nut if you had not prior to beginning the shaping.

Bubbanov

I redid a Squier, a maple Warmoth and the USACG. Acetone and clean lint free rags, make sure you got an serial number stored so you can ink it on the neck once the acetone does its work. The maple neck webspecial neck has lots of CA glue all around the fretwork, invisible till you try and nitro it, this must all come off, hence the redo.
Mohawk Colonial Maple is too semi-opaque, too pigment rich to make a good neck toner. I've run out of Behlen Maple, help!

guitar slinger · January 20th, 2008, 10:13 PM

I need the Korina to turn out close in color/shade to the walnut body. Any suggestions on stain to use with the nitro...

boris bubbanov · January 21st, 2008, 01:46 AM

I haven't tried to stain nor tint korina. Walnut can be very dark, any stain that dark would make the figure in the korina all but disappear, that's not really a match.

Bubbanov

Axis29 · January 21st, 2008, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitar slinger

I need the Korina to turn out close in color/shade to the walnut body. Any suggestions on stain to use with the nitro...

Can you post pictures of the body? That way it would be easier to help you with a stain color.

guitar slinger · January 21st, 2008, 11:04 AM

what ya think

boris bubbanov · January 21st, 2008, 06:44 PM

Go to your local specialty woods store like Woodcraft or its local born equivalent and pick up some white korina or limba scraps. Practice with some readily and cheaply available stains, see what stain does to korina.

That walnut body looks much lighter in color than mine; you might be OK.

BTW test fit and setup that neck on you guitar, find out if any material needs to come off the bottom side of that heel on the korina Warmoth before you get it all perfectly finished.

Bubbanov

guitar slinger · January 21st, 2008, 07:42 PM

thanks for the tips...much appreciated

guitar slinger · January 21st, 2008, 08:08 PM

Looks like it is possible to do. The stain used on this korina body was a medium brown. Found this in the Warmoth pic gallery.

January 20th, 2008, 07:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
guitar slinger Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: lexington. ky Posts: 148 6 Photos	neck finish question... Just bought a Warmoth vintage construction Korina neck with pau ferro fret board ( no finish ). I have a finished walnut body ( nitro ) Id like to match the finish on as much as possible. Any suggestions on putting a finish on it such as product, prep, application etc? thanks

January 20th, 2008, 09:59 PM	#2 (permalink)
boris bubbanov Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA + in the past Posts: 7,715	I suggest you shape the korina as you see fit with a 1/4 sheet random orbit sander with dust collector, start at 100, then 150, 220, 320, 400. Once you have the reshaped areas as you like 'em continue on all the korina you can get to without disturbing the pao ferro with 600, 800. You can run over onto the pau ferro on the optional 1000 and 1200, all dry sand. Wipe real clean, then use the blue masking tape to tape off the pau ferro. Drill a 5/32nds hole (offline with the truss rod) between the four existing holes, and insert a # 10 deck screw with the point ground down, keeping track of how far you can go safely. Once tight, clamp a big vice grips on that and use that as your handle. Now, misting at first, letting the nitro soak into the korina, apply some Deft clear gloss nitro, $ 4.84 per can at Lowe's. A little more each go round. I do one 'face' at a time and let the nitro level with the benefit of the horizon. I did eight necks today, 2 strat and six Tele, 3 of which were Squier 51 maples, 1 USACG maple Strat, the rest mixed maple and rosewood from Warmoth. Used 2 cans of Deft, leaving a 1/4 unused at the bottom. I will redo 2 of the eight 'cause I got distracted by the football game, but those are good odds. Leave it alone overnight. You can install the tuners next day, and the nut if you had not prior to beginning the shaping. Bubbanov I redid a Squier, a maple Warmoth and the USACG. Acetone and clean lint free rags, make sure you got an serial number stored so you can ink it on the neck once the acetone does its work. The maple neck webspecial neck has lots of CA glue all around the fretwork, invisible till you try and nitro it, this must all come off, hence the redo. Mohawk Colonial Maple is too semi-opaque, too pigment rich to make a good neck toner. I've run out of Behlen Maple, help! Last edited by boris bubbanov; January 21st, 2008 at 01:45 AM.

January 21st, 2008, 01:46 AM	#4 (permalink)
boris bubbanov Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA + in the past Posts: 7,715	I haven't tried to stain nor tint korina. Walnut can be very dark, any stain that dark would make the figure in the korina all but disappear, that's not really a match. Bubbanov

January 21st, 2008, 06:44 PM	#7 (permalink)
boris bubbanov Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA + in the past Posts: 7,715	Go to your local specialty woods store like Woodcraft or its local born equivalent and pick up some white korina or limba scraps. Practice with some readily and cheaply available stains, see what stain does to korina. That walnut body looks much lighter in color than mine; you might be OK. BTW test fit and setup that neck on you guitar, find out if any material needs to come off the bottom side of that heel on the korina Warmoth before you get it all perfectly finished. Bubbanov

January 21st, 2008, 07:42 PM	#8 (permalink)
guitar slinger Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: lexington. ky Posts: 148 6 Photos	thanks for the tips...much appreciated