Bursts - can you share your experiences

[Daniel P]

I'll be starting my first build soon, and shortly after my second (just ordered two kits from Ken). I'm certain many would recommend against doing a burst for any of one's early builds - but for now I'm wanting to gather as much info as I can on the "how." Then I'll decide if I'll actually do it.

I'm specifically interested in the darker edge, Gibson / Martin 1935 style.

My build will be sitka/walnut 00 with herringbone purfling and herringbone rosette. I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of masking the sides, spraying the burst on the top, and then scraping burst from the herringbone purfling (purfling pre finished with shellac to protect it from staining from the burst).

I have full access to spray equipment, or can go with the stew mac style spray cans.

How do you scrape/protect the herringbone in the rosette?

Can any of you share process and thoughts on how to approach this?

Again, just doing the research on how - I appreciate any information or links you can share.

thanks all
Daniel

[ken cierp]

http://www.behlen.co.uk/media/Behlen%20 ... rosols.pdf

[Daniel P]

Thank you Ken - in the pdf, as I'm reading elsewhere, it is recommended to avoid overspray on the rosette - by means of a frisket, or careful spray pattern.

However, many of the more professional looking bursts clearly have the lighter tone, if not the mid tone of the burst, extend up to the rosette/soundhole.

This is a very good video of Collings burst being applied - http://youtu.be/VJNnAw-rXng - here we see the lighter and mid tone of burst extending to the sound hole.

There seems to be a gap in readily available instructions and actual practice.

I have much more research to do on the burst spraying, but here are some more direct questions for the forum

For those of you that have sprayed bursts, would you mind sharing if you

- masked the rosette directly ( via pin striping tape, painters tape, liquid frisket etc)
- blocked overspray via a paper frisket
- sprayed over the rosette and only scraped it clean after spraying.

For all of these scenarios I'm assuming, at a minimum, the rosette and bindings are sealed with shellac, vinyl sealer or other based on preference - to prevent any potential staining of the lighter woods in those elements.

The area that I'm still unclear on is how to effectively scrape the rosette clean without creating a unevenness in the finish at the sound hole.

Any further thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Tim Benware]

I use pin stripping tape to mask the bindings and sign makers tape (low tack) to mask the rosette.