Popping Grain on Birdseye Maple

[Steve H Graham]

I have an unsealed birdseye maple guitar neck. It's from Warmoth. Got questions.

1. I am told I don't have to fill the grain. Does that mean I can just hang it up and start spraying shellac on it?

2. I want to bring the grain out, while coloring the wood as little as I can. What's the best approach?

The final finish will be lacquer.

[Andy Sowers]

Boiled Linseed oil will pop the grain, but will also impart some color. Do you have a sample piece you can experiment on before you start finishing your workpiece? Its best to sort out your finishing scheudle first...

Thanks
Andy

[Steve H Graham]

I have scrap maple, but it's not birdseye.

[John Coloccia]

It depends how intense you want to get. Honestly, I feel that birds eye maple looks best with nothing but a clear finish with maybe a slight amber tint in it. I just really like that look. It's not like curly maple where I think it looks better when it's "popped". If you want to go the popping route, oil will work but I find it inconvenient to use because of the drying time. Also, it will darken the wood around it as well. I personally like Transtint dyes and would mix it with alcohol. Then dye it, let it dry and then sand it back to the wood. Do that a 2 or 3 times and the birds eye will really stand out. Again, I personally don't really like this look on birdseye. Another approach, and the one I like best, is to just put a coat of amber shellac before you spray the lacquer. Yet another approach is to do the dye, and then come back as a last step with a VERY weak dye, or amber shellac and topcoat over that. You get sort of a light 3D effect.

You can experiment a bit on the back side of the tenon where no one will ever see it and figure out what you like best. I'll look around and see if I happen to have an BE in my shop. If I do, I'll setup a board so you can see the various options.

[Steve H Graham]

Thanks, John. I'm not trying to make it a heavy-duty 3D finish. I just want enough dye or whatever to make it obvious that it's not unfinished and that I made an effort.

Still don't know what to do about finishing it. I don't know whether it's ready to start blasting, or if I need to sand it and apply shellac before lacquer.

[John Coloccia]

I found a nice piece. Keep in mind that I didn't really wait before applying anything here. This is just a down and dirty, VERY quick demonstration I did just a few minutes ago. If you're even a little careful, you'll be able to duplicate these effects. I kept it kind of subtle which is what I think you want.

Here's a picture of the back side of the board:



It's actually a pretty nice piece.

I did three different finishes really quickly for you:



All of the panels are top coated identically. I have a mixture of Amber and Orange shellac that I like to use. There's nothing magic about the mix and honestly I couldn't tell you what the percentages are. It's really not critical. Nothing fancy...I used a shop towel and wiped it on best I could.


This first panel has no dye at all. Note the nice hue the amber/orange shellac has imparted. It has that nice, vintage nitro look to it.




The second panel has a very weak mixture of transtint and alcohol (I use Everclear because it's what I happened to have on hand for french polishing, but for dye I suggest mixing with denatured alcohol because it's much cheaper). I think the particular transtint of "Dark Brown Mahogany", which has just a tinge of reddish hue in it. Then I let it dry for about 5 minutes and sanded it back until only the figure had dye in it. You'll let it dry longer than this. I was just going for speed. Note how the figure almost looks like it's floating on top of the board, especially towards the top where there's just a touch of quilting as well.



The last panel is dye only. First of all, notice how blotchy it is. Secondly, notice how much darker it is from the original maple. It no longer has a nice amber glow to it. now it's obviously dyed. You can clearly see the brownish/reddish hue going on. There's nothing wrong with it (other than the blotching which can be prevented with a sanding back, a light coat of thinned shellac, and a re-dying) but I really dislike this particular look for some reason.



Again, this was all done very quickly and haphazardly. I doubt it took all of 15 minutes. I don't mean it to be a tutorial. I just wanted to give you an idea of what a couple of different effects were.

[Steve H Graham]

I really appreciate it, John.

The differences seem very subtle to me. If you hadn't pointed them out, I probably would not have been able to discern them. It looks like I'll get a good result regardless of what I do.

Do you have any idea what the ratio of dye to alcohol is?

[John Coloccia]

I had a little measuring cup....one of those tiny little cups similar to the the top of a Nyquil bottle. It was one small drop of Transtint, and the rest was alcohol. It was what I would consider to be a weak solution. Two full drops would have made a strong solution. It's very difficult to mix transtint in such small quantities. Again, I was just working for speed. I suggest you go down to your local Woodcraft, or wherever, and pick up the nicest piece of birdseye you can find to experiment on. Then have at it and work your process until you're happy. EVERYONE experiments. You don't want to do it on you workpiece until you're really sure of your results. Make a panel like I did with variations so you can see what's happening without having to remember. Oh....take good notes. All great finishers, in my opinion, either have a fantastic memory, or they take VERY good notes.

[Casey Gooding]

I would use Tung oil followed by shellac. Tung oil will pop the figure without imparting too much color.

[Josh Rudolph]

If you have plenty of time for it to dry, I would go with Boiled Linseed Oil. If you don't have as much time, I would go with a Shellac to pop the grain. Then there is no worries with what you top coat with.

[Scott Holmes]

Another option would be to use a light colored dye and anfter it dries lightky sand it back; this will leave the color in the birdseye only. I would not add a lot of color; I too like birdseye the way it is...

[Trace Beard]

Be sure and keep notes. Sometimes it can get confusing when you make several sample boards.

[David Christopher]

Steve, I wouldnt put any oil on the neck of my guitars.....I use behlen amber toner and clear lacquer