alternative ways to finnish guitars

Watco oils on this one

This is my first DIY Guitar I did in 2002. I did not want to spray so I went Watco tung oil, which is varnish based If I remember right.

The top of the guitar is a Thick White Ash on Black Walnut. I used 3 Watco Tung oils, Walnut Stained, Golden Oak, and Clear.

The Golden oak was used on the Ash top to get a bit of an Amber patina going. The walnut to blend to the edge, and the clear on the walnut on the back and the last few coats on the front once I got the color in the neighborhood I though looked OK.

 

Hey hopdybob.

I did an acoustic guitar with stains and clears that were compatible with water. I mixed the color coat tints with alcohol but you can mix with water as well. The sanding sealer and the gloss finish were also water based.

 

Here's a couple of shots of the water finish.



The body and neck are mahogany with a stain to color it to a rosewood like color.

The top is spruce with a very light amber tint to it to tone down some of the white.

 

Alternative ways to Finnish guitars?

Maybe with kaalikääryleet?

 

Gun stock oil or True oil is a decent less toxic way to finish a guitar and can be put on by hand leaves a semi gloss finish. Might not be as readily available in the Netherlands due to there not being a lot of guns there.

 

I'm a little puzzled how you would use hobby paint and danish oil and some type of "thinner" all in an effort to avoid solvents. There are so many differnt types of solvents, but all finishes will have some liquid vehicle that makes it possible to apply it to your workpiece. Gunstock oil is a polymerized tung oil varnish type finish and has many components to it but it's biggest advantage is that it is formulated to be wiped on rather than brushed or sprayed. Danish oil is a thinned varnish also and will give a matte finish without much of a clear film build (again, not something you'd expect to see on a professionally finished guitar, but there are some well-regarded oil-finished acoustics out there). "Tung oil" is actually only one component of varnish (which contains oil, resin, and solvent, along with metallic driers and UV protectants and other additives), but cans that say "tung oil" usually are more than just the oil, you tend to see varnish thinned down so it can be wiped on. All of these wiping finishes have organic solvents in them, petroleum distillates that are similar to naptha or mineral spirits. Spray cans usually have nastier solvents in them like MEK or toluene, and packaged in various mixtures with acetone as "lacquer thinner." Not sure which ones you're allergic to, but contact dermatitis is not uncommon from any of these products and even gloves and a respirator might not be enough if you're sensitive to them.

One good way to stay away from traditional organic solvents is to convert to waterborne finishes which have really evolved quite a bit in the last decade. They used to be fragile, blue-tinted, hazy products but now they compare to solvent lacquers in appearance. I prefer waterborne lacquers because it's easier to clean the spray equipment with soapy water than it is to run quantities of solvent through the gun, and they tend to be more environmentally friendly because of lower volatile organic compound content (some states are regulating the VOC content in finishing products). While you might find some of the older generation waterborne products being sold in the home centers or hardware stores, you might want to stay away from these. Instead, the latest advances in professional, or even woodworking hobbyist, products are carried mostly by online woodworking catalogs. At this point however you're getting into serious woodfinishing and spray equipment becomes a necessity in order for you to open your options.

I'd recommend Bob Flexner's book, Understanding Wood Finishes, as a starting point for getting a handle on the various types or categories of woodfinishes - because frankly you're never going to know from what's on the label of the can at the big box store. Another good resource is the forum on the Targetcoatings web site, they happen to manufacture an excellent line of water based finishes under the Oxford and Em-tech labels.

 

I'm far from an expert in allergens but it sounds like your problem is more with the acrylics than the solvents. The waterborne guitar finish that I used has a strong odor and has lots of acrylic content and I imagine latex paints are similar.

I would think if you could handle terpentine then your problem is not so much with organic solvents.

Don't really know the answer - just thinking out loud.

 

Hey, hopdybob!

Talk to your allergist, and get him to print you a list of those things to avoid. My Dad did that, as he's been fooling with this stuff for almost 70 years. His list is different from the next guy, even guys his age with the same background.

There need not be a correlation between how strong something smells and how allergic it makes you react. I could recommend you use only water borne products, but these could in fact cause some individuals, maybe you, more harm than those vile things the rest of us have learned to respect or fear.

 

danish oil is easy to apply
it has a lttle varnish which may have problem for you
better is a rubbed oil finish like tung oil or boiled linseed oil
very nice finish but lots of work