staining sapele

Types of finish coatings -- application tools -- application methods
peter havriluk
Posts: 984
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:30 pm
Location: Granby, CT

Re: staining sapele

Post by peter havriluk » Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:04 pm

Tim, the package showed up today (Monday morning). I'll look for the email. Thanks very much.
Peter Havriluk

Hans Mattes
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 6:32 pm
Location: Petaluma, Calif.

Re: staining sapele

Post by Hans Mattes » Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:00 pm

I fully concur with John P.'s comments regarding setting the binding a tad deep so level scraping thins the sides and not the binding, and I follow how that makes it necessary to bind before any staining. However masking the binding can be a challenge, depending on the choice of stain and the binding.

I recently completed a mahogany neck with a fretboard bound with ebony with a maple lam, matching the binding used on the padauk body. I wanted to stain the neck black so had to mask the maple lam to prevent its turning black and disappearing. That was a challenge. I tried coating the binding, especially the maple lam, with shellac, and then I masked as carefully as I was capable using Frog Tape (which was recommended as generating the cleanest line). After staining, I had a tedious and moderately successful project to scrape the black stain out of those areas of the maple lam where it had defied my best efforts at masking.

My learning: if I decide to stain body or neck woods after binding, choose the stain and the binding carefully. Perfect masking is not within my capabilities.

Just sayin'.

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