Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I'm currently in the US, doing a guitar building apprenticeship for one more year. Before I came here for the apprenticeship, I was living and building guitars in NZ. After the apprenticeship, I will be setting up my own shop somewhere. I've got a US and NZ passport, so I can stay here, or go to NZ ...

You make a good point Jim, I'll try that first. There was a bit of sanding in between coats which made things thinner.

Here is the crazing on my guitar. It's really only noticeable in certain lights and was hard to capture in a photo. My plan is to sand it down until it looks like the cracks are gone, then re build up the finish more slowly following Alan's method. I wonder though if there's a risk that the lower le...

Alan, so when you mix 2lb cut and ethanol on the rubber, they combine and have a similar effect to using 1 lb cut? Is there an advantage to applying each to the rubber separately? Do you vary the ratio in certain situations? Thanks.

Ok, thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to apply more slowly the next time. Do you guys think it would be possible to re amalgamate the cracks on the existing finish?

It's a 2 lb cut, conventional dewaxed platina shellac flakes from shellac shack. No other additives. I didn't use any oil. I wasn't doing a traditional French polish of smoothing the finish using the pad, I was just wiping on successive coats to get a build up then sanding/buffing. I started out doi...

Hi everyone I'm doing a shellac finish for the first time and having an issue with what appears to be crazing. My application was I wiped on a bunch of thin coats of shellac over time until there was enough buildup to level sand and buff. It looked good for about a week, and then I noticed some micr...

Excellent, thank you once again!

Thank you Allen, that clears things up for me.

Hey, First post here so might as well introduce myself. I’m Jeff, been building guitars in Rotorua NZ for the last few years and lurking on this forum from time to time. I’ve been spraying mirocat 3220 on all my guitars, there’s some things I don’t like about it so I’m thinking of switching to mirot...