Official Luthiers Forum!

I am on the middle of an OO sized guitar with a redwood top and maple B+S.

The B+S were all the same color before I put some shellac on, but then the sides showed up darker than the back. I have bleached maple in the past but found that it kills the figure.

Anybody have any ideas?

thanks

Ed M

It may be easier to darken the back a little than bleach the sides. A thin coat of garnet shellac might pull it together.

As per Clay's recent post, you might try a test piece using potassium permanganate in a very dilute mix.

I have used it for a number of furniture restorations I have done in the past and it works quite well to darken any wood. It is actually oxidizing the wood much like UV light and time will do.

The trick to using it to darken wood is to apply AFTER all sanding is done. The oxidization only goes as deep as the solution will penetrate (which is not very deep on maple).

Cheers,
Bob

I think I read something here years ago about accentuating the figure on maple by using one or more light applications of various colored dyes. Anything to that?

Thanks for the ideas - what I want to do is make the sides as light as the back for the most contrast with the redwood.

Ed

You could try oxalic acid. It is usually used on iron stains, but it may lighten the sides a few shades to get them closer to the back. How long they continue to remain close is anyone's guess. The "bleached" wood may age differently than the untreated wood ? (speculation - not based on experience) If both left untreated they may eventually blend together (this does seem to happen often).
Pictures can be deceiving, but from the photograph the colours don't look far off.
Maple doesn't stay white too long, unless you do a pickled finish. I would be curious to know what the Ivanov snowflake parlor guitar from a couple of years back looks like now.

Here is my first guitar built in 2011. It was a kit and there was a light, blackish stain about the size of a playing card in the upper left. I tried various techniques but nothing worked until I used oxalic acid - a couple of light coats. The lightness was only mildly apparent, but a year later the difference in color really showed up and it has stayed that way. In the flesh, the figure is pretty washed out, too. Trying to avoid this.

I am hoping that someone has the experience to maybe suggest different chemical, or maybe a certain dye or stain to bring the figure back while keeping the wood pale after bleaching.

You could try bleaching with the oxalic acid and then do a dilute wash of KMnO4 to enhance the figure. It might take quite the balancing act to get it right so definitely try it on scrap first. We used to use KMnO4 to pop the figure on Queen Anne style birdseye maple mirrors. It darkened the maple some, but that just helped to make the item look authentic.
If the sides /back colour difference only showed up after the shellac was applied, then it could be the "runout" in the sides took the shellac more than the back. It is the runout (endgrain) in the curl that takes stain more which pops the figure. Removing the shellac and using a water white sealer on both the back and sides - might - solve the problem. It could also reduce the appearance of the curly figure. Again, test on scrap before committing to all that work.
Honestly, from the pictures I don't find the colour difference objectionable. If I did I would be inclined to "tone" the back to bring it in line with the sides, but I sometimes take the easy way out and am willing to accept results that are less than originally intended. I understand that this doesn't work for everybody.

I would leave it the way it is.
I think any chemicalling (my own word) will change in time,
and you won't have any idea which direction it will go.
It looks fine the way it is.
Alan

Aln

Thanks for the support. I am just binding the back today with strips of the maple sides that I cut off of them before bending, and I will try sanding a bit more and then leave them. It will all darken a little in a couple of years.

Ed