How to get this blue finish?

DiscoStu

Just thinking out loud for a bit...
I saw this Prisma Toledo a wee while back and it's a cracker. Now whilst I'm not about to build a guitar out of skateboards, I do think the blue looks fantastic and it's given me an idea but how do you think it was done? Do you think this was dyed or sprayed? I've seen some blue stains but they look very dark compared to this.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1117/5838/products/IMG_8499.JPG

Andyjr1515

Almost certainly stained, I reckon. The depth of colour is determined not only by the stain, but also the wood underneath. For that degree of lightness, the lighter stripes would need to be maple or something similarly white and unabsorbant.

SteveRobinson

I'm saying sprayed. I wouldn't expect the disparate plies of wood to absorb dye so uniformly.

The "burst" is certainly sprayed.

DiscoStu

If sprayed, do you think it was directly on to the ply or would they have given the bare wood a shot of clear first to flatten it?

DiscoStu

I'm tempted to get some stain and try it on an offcut, but as originally mentioned the blues I've seen are generally darker. Wudtone do have an Azure Blue but it actually looks too soft/pale.

Funkfingers

SteveRobinson said:

I'm saying sprayed.

+1

TBH, I really want the answer to be the ol' Blue Peter favourite, sticky backed plastic. It has that naff Seventies look about it. To complete the look, just add an Open University Seventies course tutor kipper tie.

SteveRobinson

DiscoStu said:

If sprayed, do you think it was directly on to the ply or would they have given the bare wood a shot of clear first to flatten it?

Yes it would be well sealed and levelled beforehand. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Oh cool! That certainly looks like it would be fun to do

octatonic

I reckon it is sprayed using a similar technique to how you would pinstripe.
Start with light colours and go progressively darker masking off sections.
Must have taken ages.

DiscoStu

octatonic said:

I reckon it is sprayed using a similar technique to how you would pinstripe.
Start with light colours and go progressively darker masking off sections.
Must have taken ages.

No, the finishing would have been easy enough but the top would have taken a while to make. It's recycled skateboards, glued together to get all the different plys and colours layered up in to stripes of different tones. Then sliced up and bookmatched.
The blue finish brings out all the different shades of the different boards.
It's the blue itself that I like, a nice mid blue with a bit of pop.

octatonic

DiscoStu said:

octatonic said:

I reckon it is sprayed using a similar technique to how you would pinstripe.
Start with light colours and go progressively darker masking off sections.
Must have taken ages.

No, the finishing would have been easy enough but the top would have taken a while to make. It's recycled skateboards, glued together to get all the different plys and colours layered up in to stripes of different tones. Then sliced up and bookmatched.
The blue finish brings out all the different shades of the different boards.
It's the blue itself that I like, a nice mid blue with a bit of pop.

Ah right, so it is ply 'endgrain'?

That would have soaked up a lot of finish then.

Sporky

I think it'd be alternating layers of long and end grain, hence the light and dark.

WezV

It will all be long grain, at least as much as the side of any plank is.  

  Just a mix of natural wood tones within the ply, possibly a few different species, but even maple comes in a lot of colours

edit- as far as I am aware skateboards have the grain going along the board for each layer... not alternating at 90 degrees like normal ply.

i am wrong... on a 7 ply board layers 3 and 5 would go at 90 degrees

Sporky

Ah - I had assumed alternating orthogonal grain.

rpr

Different layers of maple ply, dyed separately, then glued together...http://www.theguitarmagazine.com/features/money-shot-prisma-guitars/ ;   

WezV

rpr said:

Different layers of maple ply, dyed separately, then glued together...http://www.theguitarmagazine.com/features/money-shot-prisma-guitars/ ;   

I don’t think there is a lot of dyed veneer in this one.  

More likely a lot of undyed ones than a lot that were dyes a similar blue.  Obviously the very dark lams, and the greener coloured ones could have been a different colour

m_c

You could achieve a similar look by doing the blue burst, then black paint with a slotted wiper like a paint and grain kit, but only doing straight lines.

DiscoStu

Cool as the process has turned out to be, it's not really the tonal stripes that have got me wondering, more the overall trans mid blue they've topped it with. I was hoping it could be done with a stain easily at home but looks like it's sprayed.
I take it it's a clear lacquer with a drop of blue added?

rpr

Crimson do a few different shades of blue stain,,,https://crimsonguitars.com/store/stunning-stains/ ;  

DiscoStu

rpr said:

Crimson do a few different shades of blue stain,,,https://crimsonguitars.com/store/stunning-stains/ ;  

Oo, the royal blue and phthalo blue look good. Cheers.

Corvus

My money's on a candy, as per Steve. The colour is a concentrate in a clear lacquer or a special carrier and isn't easy to spray; one hair, speck or insect and it's game over, you can't pick it out or sand or respray. Start over. Have to spray evenly to avoid tiger stripes & patchy look.

The final colour tone & depth depends on the concentration mixed in the clear and the sprayed layers, and the colours underneath your candy layers. Dark blues often take on that turquoisey greeny hint when thin. Some examples of the same burnt orange candy -
http://alleykat.co.uk/images/stuff/minx/stg11/roof1.jpg
http://alleykat.co.uk/images/stuff/misc/zen3.jpg