Polishing compounds

ThePrettyDamned

Still prepping for my @GSPBASSES body and neck, which will be around sometime in the new year, but also for my upcoming strat or tele build.  

This guy has successfully used Stewmac sourced polishing compounds on his Wudtone finish, and it looks stunning.  http://guitarkitbuilder.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Siena%27s%20Stratocaster

I'm actually, for my tele/strat, going to used a solid finish like T-Bird but I love that aqua a lot, so maybe I'll ask Andy nicely...

Anyway, after several coats of colour, you apply the top coats of Wudtone (several extra thin coats).  It's glossy, and can be made to shine, but not mirror.  These polishing compounds seem to have really boosted the shine to close-to-mirror, which I'd like.

Can we source anything like Colortone in the UK? He used the medium then fine ones and buffed it by hand.  

Jez6345789

Hi

I have had a couple of go's working on Wudtone to improve the finish to get a higher gloss and had winners and losers. 

Winner 

My T bird strat with aged top coat came out sweet but a little flat. The burnishing method Andy recommends using crumpled paper or rags works well to get that patina of age that Andy and a lot of people look for, slightly relicced rather than factory gloss of a modern guitar. I worked till every ached with paper and microfibre cloths and got a really niced lived in finish. It was still not Fender gloss but it looked good. 

As much as Wudtone do not recommended anything further, I took the risk of using Meguirs carnuba wax polish and after the finish was a couple of months old built up and buffed about 10 coats. Meg's is good as it is just a polish many car products have solvents and cleaning stuff to remove road film and abraid the surface Meg's break that into separate products and process giving you a pure wax top coat. It worked really well another arm breaking session but lifted the body to a slightly higher gloss.

Since then I have been experimenting with different finish techniques some based around Wudtone and home brew formulations.

I tried a walnut strat this year using a great deep raspberry wood dye I found in Spain not seen a colour like it in the UK as I wanted a Walnut strat that did not look like my Nan's sideboard as most walnut guitars look a bit furniture like. I did the raspberry wood dye went on fine then finished with lots of Wudtone topcoat it looked really lush. Left it for a month to fully cure and tried to buff it out with a slightly abrasive compound like colourtone it buffed really nice and got almost mirror like finish the only down side was as there is not grain filling with Wudtone it fills and levels as its oil based itself. Some of the compound permeated through the Wudtone and into the walnut grain leaving with a white residue in the grain below the finish that looked awful. It would not polish or come off so the Raspberry Strat will be down for a start again  this year. I imagine this would be better on Alder and I have played with Wudtone on Alder and buffed out to a gloss with a compound.

The best advice with Wudtone is to test on scrap wood if you are going off from Andy's recommendations as you can in my experience screw it up. Also let it cure for a good few weeks. 

In the end Wudtone and it competitors are  a good simple system for finishing guitars that gives them a nice patina off age quickly as well as giving an easy to apply finish without the need for a spray shop a big plus for home builders. Ultimately I do not think with a hand finish you will get that deep shine of a poly or nitro finish as your not cutting back between coats etc etc. What you do get it is a great looking patina.

regards Jez

ThePrettyDamned

Cheers mate. I know it'll never be the same as a thicker poly finish, but that guy got a pretty sweet shine. I buffed my jazzmaster by hand and it was shiny, but was just wondering if I could achieve a tiny bit more by applying a polish.

I might give the wax a go, but maybe I'll see how this one turns out.