Doing Things Wrong

Red-on-Red Burst

I smoothed down the brushed poly on this body and was dissatisfied with the result. The shape, with binding and German carve, is rather complex to sand, and the brushed-on finish required an excessive amount of sanding. The foam brush made no difference. Another bad idea from talk_ass, which is an endless spring of bad ideas. I will never again try to brush on a finish - there is no reason, I have excellent spray facilities.

So I made a mix of equal parts stain and poly, masked off the binding, and shot the sides opaque red, feathering into the center, where the grain is still visible. When this is dry, I'll do the same around the front.


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Don't get caught in prison with one of these​

After making a muddle of things with a razor blade and several other implements that proved to be less than satisfactory, I decided I needed to have the right tool - something roughly pencil-sized that can be handled with precision and ease, with a proper scraper edge. I took a look at StewMac, and found their binding scraper - exactly what I was thinking of. But with shipping, it would cost $15, and I'd have to wait a week for it, and after all, it's just a piece of steel. So I started thinking and remembered I have some 1/2" steel binding strap material. This is the stuff that is used around very large heavy boxes. It is a fairly hard and springy type of steel that would probably make a good tool. So I got busy in the shop and made three scrapers.

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