Tru-Oil in Australia?

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:30 am

After burning a bunch of bandwidth and getting occaisionally side tracked I still havent found a distributor here for Tru-Oil. Does anyone know who it would be?

From the descriptions it sounds like a Danish Oil type of product, is this correct?

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:48 am

G'day Sebastiaan,

I buy mine from my local gun smith shop. I think you'll find most have it in stock. Around $10 for the little 90 ml. bottle , which goes a very long way.

Made in U.S.A. , it's a Birchwood Casey product.

I understand it's a blend of linseed and other natural oils which seem to cross link.

Fantastic product . I apply it like french polish.

Just the thing for necks , as it has a great feel

joel · Post by **joel** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:08 pm

I've been trying to find a place to get this as well. Thanks for the tip Craig.

Can you finish an entire guitar (acoustic steel string) with it? I seem to remember something about it on Robbie O'Briens Finishing DVD.

joel · Post by **joel** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:11 pm

Just found this:

http://www.magnumsports.com.au/product. ... t=0&page=2 NSW

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:11 pm

Don't know about Paypal, but worth a follow up

South Australia.

http://www.riflesa.asn.au/price%20lists/care.htm

Western Australia.

http://armscar.com.au/catalogue.php?mod ... tg_prd=135

http://www.wara.asn.au/shop/shop.html

QLD

http://nqra.org.au/STORES/Stores-SlowLoading.htm QLD

Cheers

Kim

Bob Connor · Post by **Bob Connor** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:13 pm

That's great to know.

I didn't think it was available here.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:57 am

joel wrote: Thanks for the tip Craig.

Can you finish an entire guitar (acoustic steel string) with it? .

Indeed you can Joel. Dave White has done this. I also remember Colin mentioning a high end builder ( name escapes me for the moment ),who uses nothing else and believes it to be the most superior finish for instruments.

I'm not sure about using it directly on Spruce , although I do recall Dave mentioning that it doesn't penetrate as deeply as you would think.

I'm hoping Dave and Colin ( our Brits ) can comment here

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:20 am

Probably Tru-oil over a blond shellac sealing coat or two I would guess for the guitar top.

Cheers

Kim

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:51 am

Here is a tip I just got from Chris @ Armscar when I enquired about the shelf life of Tru-Oil.

Tru-Oil is a very fast drying oil finish, it will skin over quite quickly. To avoid this you need to ensure that little air remains in the bottle to react with the finish during storage.

To address this, keep a few marbles at hand. As you use a little of the oil, simply replace it's volume by dropping a marble into the bottle. This will expel the air and keep the liquid Tru-Oil brimming at the neck of the bottle.

Cheers

Kim

Jim Howell · Post by **Jim Howell** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:26 am

There is product available in higher end wine shops that sprays an inert gas into an opened bottle of wine to stop oxidation. I've no clue what the trade name may be in Australia, but I know that the Australian wine business will certainly support this sort of accessory. It works well in Tru-Oil and varnishes. I put about a 1 second spray in Tru-Oil and about a 3 second spray in a quart can of varnish. There is a product called Bloxygen that Rick Turner recommended that is the same, but it appears that the manufacturer is in the process of going under. The wine shop stuff is the same and only maybe $1US more for the fancy label!

WaddyT · Post by **WaddyT** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:36 am

Kevin Aram, an outstanding classical builder in England, who built Colin's guitar, uses an oil finish similar to Tru-Oil. His belief is that the finish is the most acoustically transparent finish for guitars. His guitars sell for around $7500, currently.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:40 am

Yes I have heard of this, from what I recall the produce is just carbon dioxide, being that it is heavier, it expels any air and sits in the neck of the bottle allowing you to re-cork.

Here's an idea, how about you drop a marble sized piece of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) into the bottle and kill two birds with one marble

Kim Strode · Post by **Kim Strode** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 12:56 pm

If there's anyone out there who uses Tru-Oil as a guitar body finish, I would be very interested to hear how they do it.

gratay · Post by **gratay** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:05 pm

showtell wrote:If there's anyone out there who uses Tru-Oil as a guitar body finish, I would be very interested to hear how they do it.

me too..

I have seen high gloss finishes in tru-oil ...I would like to know how they did it.

but I wonder, being an oil , if it has any dampening effect on inhibiting vibration of the top?..

WaddyT · Post by **WaddyT** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:16 pm

Here is a link to a first guitar posted on OLF recently. Tru-Oil, gloss finish. I believe he talks about his process somewhere in the thread.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/view ... 01&t=17747

gratay · Post by **gratay** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:05 pm

WaddyT wrote:Here is a link to a first guitar posted on OLF recently. Tru-Oil, gloss finish. I believe he talks about his process somewhere in the thread.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/view ... 01&t=17747

Thanks waddy,
Thats the one...I saw that thread a month or so ago and was impressed by the oil finish , but for the life of me I couldn't find the thread again.
thanks for that..

joel · Post by **joel** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:39 pm

Thank for the info Craig and everyone. I've been thinking about Tru-oil as a finish for my first as it looks like one of the easiest finishes to apply by hand.

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:42 pm

Thanks for all the responses folks, very helpful. It certainly looks like a fine finish. Great link Joel, just ordered some,

Colin S · Post by **Colin S** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:30 am

Tru-oil and the other drying oil finishes are the most underrated guitar finishes around. Like Waddy said, Kevin Aram one of the finest classical bulders in Europe, Julian Bream has two of his guitar, will only use an oil finish on his guitars as he considers it superior to any other.

On a recent copy I did of Torres FE19 I used a very similar finish to Tru-oil (Tru-oil would have been just as good) as the finishes on the original Torres guitars were oil varnishes.

OK, I'm usually a French polisher on my guitars but I'm looking more and more towards the oil finishes as an alternative. For the home builder they also have enormous advantages over spray finishes and don't carry the same health risks.

I use the oil over a Z-poxy pore filler (I sand back to bare wood) and just put a wash coat of shellac onto the soundboard before using the oil. I apply the oil with a French polish muneca, as that is the method I'm used to, I believe Dave just wipes it on in thin layers with kitchen tissue.

It is easy to level after leaving a week or so and buffs up really well by hand using swirl remover.

Here is my Torres copy 'La lena' (complete with tornavoz!) that has an oil finish.

Colin

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:33 am

Colin, is the oil that you use a commercial product, or one that you make yourself? Lovely looking instrument by the way.

Colin S · Post by **Colin S** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:19 am

Allen, no it's not a commercially available finish, it's hand made in small batches, mainly for the historical instrument restoration work that I do, by a guy who makes violin varnishes. But it is essentially the same as Tru-oil which I do use on all of my necks.

This guitar was one I built to satisfy my obsession with Tarrega, so I wanted a guitar as close to his FE17 as possible.

I included the Tornavoz.

I was pleased with the final result, and it has been well received among Tarrega experts. The Professor of guitar at the RCM, a three times winner of the Tarrega medal, has asked me to make him a copy.

Here's a sound clipof the guitar, this is the piece of music that the guitar was specifically made for, I use it to play all of my Spanish composer music.

Capricho arabe

Colin

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:46 am

I've been reading through the Big Red Books lately and they have heaps of articles about different finishes for violins. Spirit and oil varnishes, and from the little I know about them, it seems that True Oil is very similar to some recipes that they are referring to.

When I was much younger, my Grandfather gave me a mixture of boiled linseed oil and walnut oil with some turps to thin it out for finishing a gun stock that I had stripped a cheap lacquer finish off of. Came up a treat. As I recall, the finish dried very quickly and had a really pleasant smell.

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:07 am

Hi Colin,

Lovely playing, lovely guitar. Made the morning in our house. Thanks.

Sebastiaan

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:12 pm

Outstanding recording Colin. Do you have any more links to your music clips? I'd love to hear some more. This one is going to get a lot of air play in our house. Thanks.

Dave White · Post by **Dave White** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:06 pm

Craig wrote:
joel wrote: Thanks for the tip Craig.

Can you finish an entire guitar (acoustic steel string) with it? .
Indeed you can Joel. Dave White has done this. I also remember Colin mentioning a high end builder ( name escapes me for the moment ),who uses nothing else and believes it to be the most superior finish for instruments.

I'm not sure about using it directly on Spruce , although I do recall Dave mentioning that it doesn't penetrate as deeply as you would think.

I'm hoping Dave and Colin ( our Brits ) can comment here

I used Tru-oil as the main finish on my early guitars. There is a lot of "mythology" about the dampening effect of oil finishes - mostly propogated by people who have never used the stuff. Tru-oil is linseed oil based but is like a wiping varnish - applied thin is sits pretty much on the surface. It penetrates into the wood about as much as shellac does - I can vouch for this as I have refinished tops after a year or so with both of these finishes. it gives a lovely natural lustre to the instrument but is a finish that probably needs touching up through time - which is easy enough to do. The secret is to apply the coats very thin and build them up. You can polish it up when it's cured using Micromesh through the grits but it's not the same shiny finish you get with lacquer and imho this sort of defeats the purpose of using it in the first place. I have also used it over shellac and it works great this way too. It's a fabulous neck finish.

The oldest instrument I have with just Tru-oil as a finish is my baritone that's four and a half years old and the tone keeps getting better and better.

For oily woods like Rosewoods, Tru-oil applied direct will never cure. You can either put a shellac coat on first or use Z-Poxy as a pore fill and the Tru-oil goes on fine over this and cures nicely.

My favourite finish presently (tonewise) is three or four sprayed coats of pre-cat lacquer over a shellac wash coat and then hand-rubbed back a la Lowden. Colin will not agree I suspect, but I found this gives a better sound (to my ears) than French Polish. I say this as I FP'd my cedar maple guitar and then stripped it back and gave it a thin lacquer finish and the sound was much more satisfying. Finish on an instrument is a strange symbiotic relationship in my experience. No finish on an instrument leaves the sound unfocused, then as you apply thin layers and let them harden the sound gets more focused and interesting, this proceeds to a certain thickness and then after that damping kicks in. It's also interesting if you build up a finish in layers and play the instrument that the instrument"sulks" for a day or so after each layer is put on and sounds crap, but then suddenly bingo and it opens out. Fascinating stuff.

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