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I REALLY want my oak to look this good.
Please, someone tell me how to get this color
The best I get is greenish black, streaky, or blotchy.
I must admit that I have no clue how to use stains, dyes or varnish.
Current build is planned to be French polished.
Any help will be appreciated.

Dave

Looks like one of Jane Hendersons 12 fret dreads.

I'd get some white oak scraps and play with stains....possibly some red oak, or mahogany

Yep, That's a Henderson.

Walk me through the process and product if you please.

I have not worked with stains before. All test scraps came out blotchy or the wrong color

Have you considered using shellac?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Fumed white oak. Google


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Ken

Looks like lacquer toner to me --- appears the color is on the back strip too.

I really like this stuff:

http://www.uspaintsupply.com/paint/behl ... er-toners/

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Looks to me like a cherry or mahogany stain. The issue with colored finishes that rely on build is that they get really non-uniform when you level the finish. Thin spots turn real light. Thick spots real dark.

The trick with stains is that you must never sand through the finish into the stain layer.

I would take samples of your wood to a bona-fide woodworking store. Have them help you achieve the finish you want. They will test out various samples of the finishes on wood until you are getting the look you are after.

Many times, you have to match up the correct combination of stain and clear coat to achieve the final finish. The stain by itself looks crazy until you clear coat over it with the specific clear coat you are using.

Thanks

Dave,
A search for "Arts & Crafts finish" on Fine Woodworking's website will return several articles on achieving this look, many with step-by-step instructions and information on specific products. Some of them will require a membership for access, but I find it's money well spent.

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George :-)

This one had filler and then a walnut type stain which is actually much darker and more walnut like than the photo above from the spray booth. Here is it in a better photo.

Mark

Arts and Crafts finish.
Never heard of that before.
But it is EXACTLY what I'm after.

Will be researching that tonight!

Thanks!

From Jane Henderson:
"EJ Henderson Guitars and Ukuleles Hm. I don't know how to post on that thing, and it won't show me the picture they are referring to, but Mark posted a picture of his further in the thread so that is the darker one. Can you tell them that I use ColorTone liquid stain and get it at Stewart Macdonald. I do that before I spray any finish and sometimes tape off the backstrip and binding when necessary. I tend to favor medium brown and throw in some tobacco brown and vintage amber depending on the project."

Got it!

Found this through the fine woodworking tip.
Worked like a charm!

http://www.startwoodworking.com/post/easy-arts-and-crafts-finish

You are going to skip the polyurethane step, right?

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

No polyanything will be used for this French polish project

I couldn't resist. On the serious side I have some really nice white oak and I'll have to try that on a set. It looks great.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I also do a French polish finish and have experimented with color on a few of my last builds. I've have had good success with StewMacs Color Tone Liquid Stains.
http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Su ... tains.html

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There's another FWW article where they use shellac as the finish. Note they brushed the shellac rather than French polish.

I think you may need to be careful with French polishing this kind of finish on oak for a few reasons.
1. Cavernous, bottomless pores that take some serious work to fill.
2. You have 2 different colors of stain. Shellac burns in. Too much rubbing and you may run through the sealing layer into the bottom layer of stain and make a super blotchy mess. The blotchy mess may then soak into the wood and become very difficult to fix.

I would work out your technique on scrap before I moved to the guitar.