Nitro Checking

Danielsguitars

This is the crazing look on the sides but this was done over a longer period and the finish was so thin
 

sweepy

And some old nitro doesn’t check at all. I had the pleasure of messing around with a 100% genuine unmolested 1961 SG Les Paul, which is still owned buy the original purchaser and has the receipt as well ! It’s immaculate and looks a few years old at best 

Philly_Q

sweepy said:

And some old nitro doesn’t check at all. I had the pleasure of messing around with a 100% genuine unmolested 1961 SG Les Paul, which is still owned buy the original purchaser and has the receipt as well ! It’s immaculate and looks a few years old at best 

I've got a 1965 Melody Maker (my only vintage guitar) which I'm pretty sure hasn't been refinished (although frankly I'm no kind of expert) and it's faded but has very little, if any, checking.

Danielsguitars

I think the checking is entirely dependent on how it's been looked after

I get to see a 59 335 that is just fantastic, it looks almost new with just a tiny bit of checking 

Deadman

I've used compressed air in a can (propellant) to great effect in the past. It's pretty scary though; pops and cracks like a good un when it lands and cracks cellulose very quickly.

Danielsguitars

Deadman said:

I've used compressed air in a can (propellant) to great effect in the past. It's pretty scary though; pops and cracks like a good un when it lands and cracks cellulose very quickly.

Post up pictures of the top and sides with this method 

Deadman

I don't have any of the sides, just the top and headstock. This was a pristinely painted Tele a week before I did this. It was great fun. Relic haters look away now:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvjwcaxdjf1qlds/shareimage20181029_200030.jpg?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1bpoqls04i56ui/20161008_112506_resize_20181029_195105.jpg?raw=1

Danielsguitars

Deadman said:

I don't have any of the sides, just the top and headstock. This was a pristinely painted Tele a week before I did this. It was great fun. Relic haters look away now:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvjwcaxdjf1qlds/shareimage20181029_200030.jpg?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1bpoqls04i56ui/20161008_112506_resize_20181029_195105.jpg?raw=1

That's my problem with compressed air it doesn't look right to me, i was looking at some 50's tele's at the show and the checking looked nothing like that, you had to really look for it as it was fine and didn't stand out 

Here's freezer checking on a tele that is quite newly finished 
 

Deadman

Ah right. I was quite pleased with it. I enjoyed doing it that's for sure. It's certainly a dark art but the application, curing time and type of lacquer used are most definitely pretty critical when using hot/cold techniques.

Danielsguitars

Deadman said:

Ah right. I was quite pleased with it. I enjoyed doing it that's for sure. It's certainly a dark art but the application, curing time and type of lacquer used are most definitely pretty critical when using hot/cold techniques.

Sorry I'm not knocking you and you're right it's definitely a bit of an art that takes alot of practice and looking at original stuff, not that it will fool the experts but getting it close is very satisfying 

Deadman

Ha, that's ok mate, I'm not offended. I love your website by the way!

WezV

I find the compressed air useful, but distance and speed of the flow make all the difference.

You have to keep that can moving, and not too close

Danielsguitars

Deadman said:

Ha, that's ok mate, I'm not offended. I love your website by the way!

Thanks it's all @poopot work, he's bloody good at that stuff 

hadded03

I'm part way through some experiments with this while refinishing a Tele.  Freeze / thaw cycles with the whole body in the freezer overnight did nothing, but getting some very fine / crazing type checking with the heat gun and air duster technique (which is perhaps not very realistic looking).  With hindsight, I think I didn't grain fill sufficiently and didn't go heavy / thick enough with the clear topcoats, because the grain texture of the ash is showing through and the checking is forming off that mostly.  I don't dislike it, but no doubt those who have seen real blackguards up close will say it's not particularly authentic... which, of course, it isn't!  :-)

https://ibb.co/HGpVTKG

https://ibb.co/rtsm9LR

https://ibb.co/3sFyJQD

https://ibb.co/zhGzN80

thebreeze

hadded03 said:

I'm part way through some experiments with this while refinishing a Tele.  Freeze / thaw cycles with the whole body in the freezer overnight did nothing, but getting some very fine / crazing type checking with the heat gun and air duster technique (which is perhaps not very realistic looking).  With hindsight, I think I didn't grain fill sufficiently and didn't go heavy / thick enough with the clear topcoats, because the grain texture of the ash is showing through and the checking is forming off that mostly.  I don't dislike it, but no doubt those who have seen real blackguards up close will say it's not particularly authentic... which, of course, it isn't!  :-)

https://ibb.co/HGpVTKG

https://ibb.co/rtsm9LR

https://ibb.co/3sFyJQD

https://ibb.co/zhGzN80

Looks good to me.

SteveF

Yeah I think that looks ok - it’s not the big horizontal line checking that some people want to see, but it’s cool. Natural checking is always different anyway

davros

I took one if my nitro builds to bank practice in a cold barn, brought it into the warm house after and it sounded like rice crispies! Seemed to check realistically without the crazy paving look sometimes achieved with freeze spray.

I feel like freeze spray shrinks the lacquer in all directions rapidly, while slower freezer checking goes more in one direction.

Wierdly my LP is checked in line with the neck like an ES-335, not perpendicular like normally seen on Les Pauls. No idea why that is. Maybe because it's chambered?