I’m building my own guitar and I’m ready for the finish of the guitar body. I want a body stained blue but with natural wood grain visible (it’s in swamp ash). Find here some pictures for examples. I have made some research but I didn’t find exactly what I expected. So I want to have some confirmation that what I planned to do is correct.
As you can see on the pictures, the wood grain is a little black. It seems that before to stain in blue, I have to do something to enhance the visibility of the wood grain. I found different way to do it:
- Burn the surface of the wood with a blowtorch and sand after until only the grain of the wood grain remains dark. It seems that this is the most used method but for me it's very aggressive for the wood and suitable for failure (wood too much burn)
- Stain with a dark color and sand after until only the grain of the wood grain remains dark.
- Use a dark pore filler and sand after until only the grain of the wood grain remains dark. It works with wood which have open pores, which is the case with swamp ash.
Finally, I planed to apply an oil finish (tru oil or Danish oil).
So mow my questions:
1 – Which is the best technique to enhance wood grain visibility
2 – For the oil finish, I find a lot of tutorial but none when the guitar body is previously stained. So is it possible to use an oil finish on a dye?
3 – Swamp ash is wood with open pores. Am I obliged to apply a pore filler? If it’s the case, at what step of my finish process should it be made?
Thank you very much for your answers.
^^^
