Ron Kirn Signature

Meanwhile… It’s to get ‘er ready for a bit of paint. Prior to doing so, I need to check all the hand shaping to be sure the curves and round-over are smooth and liquid, not hard lines.

In this shot you can see the round over is a little irregular, so I’ll go at it with a sanding block and something like 100 grit paper… carefully and gently allowing the natural weight and force of simply pushing the block to follow the lines of the body.

After a few strokes you can see it is not a bit more fluid.

By “eye-ballin” it down the edge you can see the round-over produced by the router, and compare it to that which you are producing by hand. By rocking back and forth between the two you can see any areas in you work that need addressing.

And that done by machine… you can see here the hard edge the light is making more apparent, that will be smoothed out momentarily.

I use the same method on the back. Just checking and sanding out what doesn’t look like a Strat.

Some may wonder why I don’t use a scraper cut to the ½” radius to shape the roundovers through the contours. It’s actually easier and faster to do it this way. Further the scrapers will only track over a section of the body’s edge only as long as the scraper is thick, this introduces entirely too many opportunities for it to hit a piece of grain and dig in. Diggin’ in… not good… not good at all.

Here again, by checking the area done with the router and instantly comparing the part you are doing you will gain a good indication of what needs to be done.

Once the round-overs are done, go over them with some thing like 150 grit sand paper. Giving particular attention to the edges done with the router, you want to remove the mechanical appearance the machine leaves.

Here you can see the hard edge as revealed by the sunlight.

And after sanding (I simply use my fingers as the pad) the mechanical appearance will be gone, replaced with a nice smooth flowing curve.

I’m spending so much time on the importance of smoothing the body, because it’s this kind of detail that separates the “off the rack” bargain guitar from the upscale piece. You’ll be checking the next time you visit the Guitar Mart, I know hehehe..

Now Move up to 220 Grit and do a final sand, if you’re doing an opaque or semi transparent finish, 320 if doing a completely transparent finish.

Here you can see things are coming together.

Check all those sneaky little areas you may wanna skimp on….

Here you can see the round-over in the horns, how smoothly they flow into the top surface.

Now, the sunlight it unmerciful in revealing things that have to be addressed, here are two small “dings” I have no idea what I bumped, but let’s get rid of ‘em.

Those two little chinks would stick out like a Debutante at Buddy’s Beer, Bait and Bop on Saturday night.

Now, to do this we use a highly specialized tool. . .

Those following this are probably looking for little secrets that keep everything flowing smoothly, so run get a pencil and paper, you’ll wanna write this one down.. It’s among the most important advice I can give ya.

DO NOT USE YOUR WIFE’S IRON… here’s why. The one you see above cost me 15 bux at Target, or Tar-jay for the culturally bloated.

If you have a brain fart and elect to use your wife’s, here’s what happens. The iron’s bottom gets funky like you see above. So you clean it off. Using whatever is at hand, which will scratch up the Teflon base. She’s gonna notice it the next time she’s ironing her whatever and it snags. She’s gonna hit the ceiling, and it’s gonna cost you a Dinner at Ruth’s Christ Steak House, at 125.00 for 2 steaks, some old grape juice, salad, baked tater, and steamed veggies…then about 40 bux for a dozen good roses, ‘cause those at the grocery store for 9.99 ain’t gonna cut it. Then worst of all, you gotta sit around that evening, chattin’ with ‘er about how the sheets don’t really match the curtains, and what some dork said while on Oprah that after-noon, acting like you’re interested, then promise to take her to see Dr. Phil next week when he comes to town. And they remember THOSE promises.

Just go spend 15 bux and get your own damn iron, you’ll be glad you did.

OK. What were we doing… oh yeah, the dings. Put a few drops of secret ding removal liquid on a paper towel. (Water... shhh.)

Put it on the ding and iron it. Oh yeah, the iron should be hot… the hottest setting. Just place the water soaked towel on the dinged area and roll the iron across it.

Leave it there for a few seconds, and then remove…let the steam dry…
Your dings should now look like this.

Well, not exactly like this, because this is the body I’m doing, and you, of course will be doing another body, so they should look totally different, if they looked exactly alike, then something really freaky just happened, and we should be calling somebody to get a book deal shouldn’t we?

What happens is the steam is under slight pressure so it gets forced into the immediate surface, causing the fibers to expand. This forces the compressed fibers to resume their previous position and often swell beyond.

For those thinking, “Wait, don’t we pay extra for dried lumber of very low moisture content?” Yes we do, but this treatment will only effect the outer surface and dries back to normal very rapidly. This is a common technique used by quality furniture makers world wide and has been for as long as guys have been trying to get a quality finish on a piece of wood. Don’t sweat it, just do it. It’s also common for some to completely wet the surface of the piece they are working on to force the fibers to swell. That way when painted, if there is any swelling, it is greatly reduced.

While in the sun, go over the whole body, look for anything that may be helped with the steam treatment.

Here you see where something, probably a chip of wood was where it didn’t belong and left it’s calling card.

To take care of a larger surface, wet the paper towel and iron away.

Here you can see the swollen fibers and the scrape is gone.

This works best for shallow dings where the wood’s surface isn’t broken, the resulting “repair” is absolutely invisible. If the surface is broken, it will still cause the ding to expand up and out, but the broken area will leave a “fracture” mark in the surface.

Here you see the dings removed, and ready for sanding.

Check all the surfaces for dings, and to be certain the round areas are smooth, and flowing, take care of anything that needs attention. In these shots, you can see how nicely the curves meet the flat areas… we’re about ready to give ‘er a squirt.

Lookin’ good…

Now give the body a final (this will be about the last final) sanding with 220 (320 if clear finish)

The lumber revealed a slight coloration when it was planed down, and while it will be virtually unnoticeable under the semi transparent Honey Blonde finish, it bugs me.. so I’ll dig out the air brush…

I wet it with alcohol to make it more apparent.

Using a piece of scrap remaining from the blank, I’ll mix a little dye in lacquer thinner, with a very small amount of lacquer to give it a little body, then try it on the scrap.

you can see it is a little too pink, so I add a toothpick tip drop of brown and try again..

That’s about right.

Now I shield the area that is already dark, suspending it slightly above. This allows a little “blow back” to soften the edge and look much more natural.

I give it a very light mist with the airbrush, blending the join to near invisibility.

Now on to sealing. I now mount a paint handle.

Keeping it above the pocket so there will be no chipping or peel off when I remove it in a couple of weeks..

So it gets a few coats of sealer. Which will be thoroughly sanded before any color goes on…

You can see the dark strand looks much more natural now.

And remember, I jointed at an angel to reduce the point where the two sections were joined?

It’ll sit for a few, then it gets sanded…

It’s hot and dry today, so lacquer dries to the touch in a few nano seconds, so I thought I’d take advantage of it.

The sealer is plenty hard, so I sand the surface with 220 grit…. I use a finish sander on the flat surfaces… I slow it down with a variable speed control.

And on the inside and outside curves, I use a specialized multipurpose tool I always have at my disposal.

On a Strat I prefer using my fingers for the same reason you would NOT want to use them on a flat area, they create a more flowing surface, not mechanically flat like you want on the larger flat surfaces.

I now have the complete surface sanded with 220.

Here I went through the sealer, but since the stuff I use soaks into the wood slightly, it’ll be fine, but Check the complete surface to be certain you haven’t missed anything. Fix it now BEFORE the color coat goes on.

Fixing small chinks and dings that have gone unnoticed can be drop filled, and any visual anomaly will be covered by the color coat.

Now, I’ll give it a good coat of nitro… and check it in as many lighting conditions as I can to check for anything I don’t wanna see when she’s finished…

Lookin, good, time for a bit of color. Before I begin this, please those that have been doing this for a considerable time, I appreciate input, but I am self trained over 40 years, and I ain’t uh gonna be changing anything I do, ‘cause what I do works just fine for me.

So I start with a pot of lacquer.. nice ‘n clear.

Then I add a stick tip full of white tint. Tint differs from dye because it is opaque, and if enough is used, can produce a completely opaque white lacquer. I just add touch to produce something that is like watery milk.

This gives me something that would be perfect for a Mary Kaye finish. But we want a Honey Blonde.

Now I add a toothpick tip of brown dye, dye changes the color, but not the opacity.

I keep a good selection of colors. Using this stuff, is as much an art as anything else. It’s just something you have to get in there and do to get the hang of it. It’s a matter of adding the basic color, and adding other tints to get where you are going. You MUST consider the color of the base wood too, it’s going to be seen too.

The brown alone didn’t do it, so I add a drop of yellow…

which wasn’t correct either, so more brown…..

now it’s looking about right…. I always try to keep the color lighter that what I expect because I know I can correct during the clear coat…

Mix it thoroughly and put down a light mist, to check color….

have a good look in different light to see what you have done..

I now go for the Full Monty. I put it down in several light coats, which allows me to control the density and the evenness of the coverage…

Since I’m putting down light mist coats, I can never get to a full wet coat which reduces the “orange peel” effect..

This is what I mean by the ‘orange peel” look… not good. ..

In this shot you can see an area with a good wet coat, and the as yet un-coated mist section… Oh yes, after the several mist coats to achieve the correct shade, I give it a good wet coat of clear lacquer to blend everything. That’s what I’m doing in these shots..

Now I have a full wet coat….what I mean by wet coat is I continue laying down thin coats until I know one more and it’ll run… that’s a “feel” thing it just takes time and practice.

By mastering the wet coat thing, you can dramatically reduce the amount of wet sanding you will need to do.

Learn to look through the finish at reflected light to get a good idea of the quality of the coat you’re putting down,

and

I now have a finished color coat…

Now I'll apply several coats of clear. After which I’ll allow it to cure for a few days before sanding, then I’ll repeat, so just imagine me spraying paint and waiting for it to dry.

I gave the lacquer 3 days to harden; down here it’s about 90, so that’s like 3 months in the rest of the country.

So I take 400 grit (I discovered I am out of 320 grit) and use a random orbit sander at about 50% speed, I just want to take down the high spots, I am NOT going for a finish sand, this is just an interim to prevent build-up on the high spots of the minute hills and valleys in the lacquers surface. Also roughing it up facilitates the new coat’s ability to melt into the previous, becoming one homogenous film.

I use the sander on the flat surfaces, then my fingers around the periphery. There is NO need to use 220, then 320, then 500, 800, etc, At this stage, that accomplishes nothing more than consuming sandpaper, and making your arms sore. Also, you absolutely, positively do not want to sand through the clear, into the color coat, and worse, through the color, watch everything closely.

Once sanded, check it thoroughly, looking for anomalies that may make the final surface funky, take care of them now.

Remember, resist the urge to put too much time and effort in sanding to a perfect flat surface, you are going to be spraying more lacquer, and you will be right back where you are.

Once this sanding is completed, it’s time to get ‘er wet again…

For those that are gasping at the “thickness” of the finish… “Hog-Wash!”

There is no such thing as an original vintage thin finish, and really, no such thing being offered by the “Big Boys” today. To achieve the polished surface you see on the guitars hanging on the wall at Gracious Gertie’s Guitar Garage, the manufacturer HAS to fill the grain and seal it… gotta be done. Today, I don’t care what is being inferred in the marketing copy, they are using a production oriented sealer either polyurethane, or something similar. If they are only putting a few coats of whatever they are calling nitro then the underlying sealer coats HAVE to be thick. Why? Because if they are not, it is going to take a skilled worker far more time and effort to finish sand and polish that piece into a marketable product, that ain’t gonna happen on anything less than a Masterbuilt, if then. Am I saying there is no Thin Finish? You decide…

Furthermore, real Nitrocellulose lacquer like you see being shot here, including the underlying filler coats, will finish out at about .025 thick, or about the thickness of a D string. In about 6 months it will shrink to about .017, the thickness of the G string, and in a few years it will be about the thickness of the E 1st.

That is why guys see old guitars, and think Gawd; lookit how thin that paint is. I want one like that. Thin Nitro finishes are a result of time and the properties of the chemistry comprising the lacquer, not because someone was cinchy with the coats at the beginning.

So. Here’s what the first good wet coat looks like.

And here’s what it looks like looking through the finish. By that I mean look at it like it was a mirror and you were watching whatever light source was being reflected, here the light fixtures on the ceiling.

After about 10 minutes, it is just about completely dry to the touch, but still feels just a “crack” damp; I give it another good full wet coat.

By “good full” I mean it has all the lacquer I can get on it without it running. Again, this is completely a “feel” thing.

After the sanding, the main reason to apply good wet coats is to get enough solvent onto the previously dried lacquer to cause that surface to melt into the new lacquer going on. Thin mist coats will never accomplish this, and when you get to the wet sanding, you will find the new coats will peel off like sunburned skin. Do y’all get sunburned in Seattle?

Here the body has dried a few hours, you can see the slight “Orange Peel”. But what you can't tell is how very shallow the “pits” are as compared to the “hills”. It’ll only take about 3 passes with 800 wet or dry to cut that down to dead level.

and the back at the area of the tummy contour..

So this pretty much concludes the finishing stage on the body, now it’ll hang in the back room for about 2 weeks before I get around to wet sanding and polishing ‘er. In the mean time, the neck should be here any time from Tommy, when it arrives, I’ll get to finishing it.

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