What am I doing wrong? Stain coming off

FriskyDingo

I finished staining my guitar, added about four coats of oil and then a layer of wax and buffed.
I wiped off excess after each coat and haven't applied anything for two days now, yet it feel greasy and when I rub it with a paper towel some blue (not very much) still comes off.
Should I wait longer or carry on wiping? what else can you advise? Picture below

FriskyDingo

http://imgur.com/m1ORifX

WezV

which stain, which oil, which wax?

FriskyDingo

Crimson stunning stain Royal blue, liberon pure tung oil, liberon wax polish on an ash body.

WezV

I think the oil may have needed more coats or longer to dry before the wax. I tend tend to use danish or tru over pure tung oil... the additives help it dry which locks the stain in place

 It probably lifted a bit of stain.

Kalimna

From memory of using it, and advice from a woodworking forum, tung oil takes a notoriously long time to dry. Days/weeks between coats rather than several in a day. I also remember that the best way to get a good finish with tung oil was to use a heavily diluted jar of it, then less dilute, then undiluted.
In other word, a pain to use. But it does give a beautiful, shiny oil finish.
Danish and Tru-oil are much easier to use, to be honest.
In answer to your current problem, you may be OK leaving it for a week or two, wiping every day. I am guessing here, so take it with a grain of salt. You may need to strip back and start again, however.

Adam

FriskyDingo

Oh bother! Well I'll keep wiping everyday until none comes off. And if that doesn't happen for weeks then ill strip back and start again.

It's my first build so I was going to make mistakes. I didn't use grain filler either so not the end of the world if I have to strip it and start again 
Thanks again for the advice

WezV

You don’t want frainfiller on this type of finish anyway... nothing that can stop the stain absorbing evenly.

you can wet sand with oil to fill the grain, but that risks destroying your stain finish.

live with the grain, it suits an oil and wax finish.

FriskyDingo

WezV said:

You don’t want frainfiller on this type of finish anyway... nothing that can stop the stain absorbing evenly.

you can wet sand with oil to fill the grain, but that risks destroying your stain finish.

live with the grain, it suits an oil and wax finish.

With Ash being a porous wood wouldn't it benefit from grain filler? So I don't need as many coats of stain 

Kalimna

Unless you are looking for a mirror-gloss finish, I can't imagine a grainfiller is necessary. Part of the attraction of an oil finish is the textural effect of having pores visible - makes the wood a little more tactile.

However, if high gloss is your thing (and doable with tru-oil), then grainfilling is advised.

Adam

Jalapeno

Min 24hrs between coats of TruOil, preferably longer - it IS a real ball ache, but ... wax on/wax off really is the right method

Kalimna

Interesting - I have done the tru-oil thing a couple of times (not on a high-gloss finish, however) and have managed 3-4 coats/day if well spaced out and in a warm place (my house), and it has worked very well. But the rub-on-thinly-then-wipe-off process is important. It also works well using fine-grit wet-n-dry as WezV mentions to create a form of grain-filling slurry.

Adam

FriskyDingo

Next time il use Danish or tru oil. One other thing I used fret rubbers on the frets and they left some dark marks on the fretboard. I've used light fluid and 0000 steel woil but there's still slight marks, should I have used something else to protect the neck wood? 

Kalimna

Masking tape cut into thinner strips and pressed-down into the corner where the fret crown meets the fretboard should do the trick. I do this so that the entirety of the face of the fretboard is covered with tape (other than the frets themselves, that is). Any of the YT videos on fretwork should show this.

Adam

WezV

Kalimna said:

Interesting - I have done the tru-oil thing a couple of times (not on a high-gloss finish, however) and have managed 3-4 coats/day if well spaced out and in a warm place (my house), and it has worked very well. But the rub-on-thinly-then-wipe-off process is important. It also works well using fine-grit wet-n-dry as WezV mentions to create a form of grain-filling slurry.

Adam

I do like wetsanding with oil, but I don’t do it for the grainfill.  In fact I would rather buff the slurry off before that stage.

i do 24 hours on the first heavy coat, but once into wetsanding you can do a few grits one after the other