Interesting discovery...wet sanding tung oil.

[gottliver]

As I await my new ash tele body, I've been practicing finishing on a ash board. I love the feel of tung oil and its ease of application. After 12 coats (very thin) I decided to wet sand it using tung oil as a lubricant. Started w/400, then 600 and then 800. The 400 left a very smooth matt finish, the 600 brought some sheen back and the 800 further increased the sheen to what I would call a satin finish w/slight gloss. Kinda like you'd see on a highway 1 tele. I stopped at 800 because I felt like the finish was too thin and that I'd likely sand thru! Now I'm gonna put on 3 more coats (always steel wooling in between) and the start at 800, then 1000, finally w/1200. At that point I'd like to see how it looks. If it has a nice semi gloss I'll leave it and polish it and wait (impatiently) for my new Kevin-o-caster! If not, and the finish is still thick enough, I'll keep going untill 2000 grit.

Have any of you ever tried this?

cheers
mark

[Greg_C]

I'll email it to you if you like. It's a 38k MS Word file.
Greg

[G-Man54]

rookie question... I recently knocked over my strat while walking around in the dark in my room... flicked on the light, Strat was just fine... thanked the Lord and went to sleep... the next nite I noticed a ding in my Guild Bluesbird sitting nearby.... from the strat whacking it on the way down the previous night... doh!... anyway, I scoured the web for ways to try to diminish the the ding in the finish... I want to try the super glue, sand, and buff method... i found the 800 paper at the Lowe's Home Improvement... they didn't seem to know where I could find a higher grade... is 1000 and whatever is higher common at lumber yards? or do I need to try a more specialized outlet? like a cabinet maker? or was I just one dunce asking another one at the mega-store??? I'm thinking it's got to be readily available, any suggestions for the 'unhandy-man'?

thanks
G-man54

[Bob Rogers]

Higher grades of paper can be found at an auto parts store that carries paint.

Lots of places on the web, of course, including reranch.

[Kevin]

You can usually find 3M Imperial Wet/Dry paper at Wal-Mart or Advance Auto. It comes in 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grits. It's what I use.

[G-Man54]

oh yeah, auto shops... thanks all... I'm not as clever as I used to be... ;-)

[Spoto]

Send us a couple photos when your guitar is finished. I can appreciate the process! I bet it will look great.