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Aging Toner on a Sitka Spruce Top
I’m fast approaching the finish coating of 2 acousitcs. The sitka spruce tops are really bright. I’d like to tone them down a little and have been scouring the web for methods. Seems like adding amber toner in either the sand sealer or more likely the first set of nitro lacquer coats might be the the ticket. I see Stewmac has a Colortone stain called “Vintage Amber” that can be mixed into the nitro. Anybody have expirience with this process that they can share?
Your help and advice is appreciated.
Regards,
Gerry -
4 Replies
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Toner coats are ok, but I’d say just ok. I’d spray some test board that actually have some size so you can really get a sense of what it’s going to look like. The transtint (colortone) dyes tend to look real bright, which if you’re going for a vintage look, might not get you there. I hear good things about the color “straw” from colortone. You might give that a go.
I think for best results you might try what the violin cats get up to which is to set up a blacklight booth and hit it with UV. The caveat to this is that you have to use lacquer without UV inhibitors to get the lacquer to yellow. You can hit the bare wood before lacquer and that makes the spruce look good. You can also use a window and sunlight if your windows aren’t treated with UV protection.
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UV light on the wood is a good tip. I often keep nitro lacquer in glass jars on my window sill over the summer months. They age quite nicely from a few months of sunlight. Spray that for your bottom layer coats at least. If you have enough, do the whole guitar with it. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get the same look with tints.
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Scott and Ian,
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into them.
Regards,
Gerry
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Hi Gerry,
I recommend spraying a sealer chow it a light scuff and then one more sealer coat. If you are using lacquer, thin some 50% by volume and add TransTint or Colortone. Same dye and some of the colors are the same and many are made specifically for Stew Mac and guitar work. I like the vintage amber and lemon yellow mixed in equal amounts but play around with color options to get what you are after. Lemon yellow can be way too intense. Vintage amber alone (to me) can be a little too brown.
You definitely should test to see that the color is what you want. In a small amount of lacquer, I would just count drops, stir and check it. If the color is too intense it’s tough to get to a shade you are happy with without stripes or just getting too dark.
The idea with 50% reduced lacquer is not adding mil thickness and assuring the color lays out nice and smooth.
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