how to get a natural oiled finish ???

[barryman]

I have a tobacco sunburst finish P-bass copy that I want to rub down to bare wood (yeh, there's grain showing so it's worth a try). It has a black scratchplate so I thought a natural colour will set it off nicely. Once stripped I then wish to use oil to get it to a sort of honey natural finish or a bit darker, maybe like the colours shown in photos below. So, questions are:

1) Once I've used stripper etc to take off existing finish, then sanded everything down properly, would I use some kind of bleach to lighten the wood before colouring it up again? If so, is household bleach OK to use?

2) Once sanded etc, what oils would you recommend to get the soft satin sheen look I'm after? I've heard people say Danish/ Teak oil/ Tung etc but need advice on what's best and inexpensive!

3) What determines the shade of brown - do I use a wood stain first and then oil it or do I build up colour with different oils to achieve desired shade.

All suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks, Barry
[attachment=142519:jd s4b honey.jpg]
[attachment=142516:natural finish (5).jpg]

[ead]

I had an old J stripped down and around 5 to 6 coats of Danish oil brought out the wood grain beautifully. Not sure about staining though, I wanted it just as it was.

[BobVbass]

I've used danish oil mainly on some knife handles I've made - comes up really nicely, is pretty cheap and goes a long way - to really smooth the wood dampen it after sanding then go over with scotch brite or wire wool

[Truckstop]

I prefer Danish oil. It's fairly cheap and simple to apply.

You won't need to bleach the wood, but you will need to make sure that you've got rid of any primers that may have been applied before the old finish was painted on. You really need bare wood to get the best results.

To build up colour, all you need to do is have lots of patience and apply many many coats of oil. I would apply at least 6 as a matter of course. Apply a coat, leave overnight/24hrs, light sand with wet and dry paper and then apply another coat.

Keep going until you've done at least 6. After that, it's a case of building up until you've sort of got the colour you want. After you've left it for a week or so, use some beeswax and wax the bass a few times, buffing inbetween coats and leaving for at least 24 hours between coats. I'd say at least 5 coats of wax.

This will give you loads of colour and a really lush looking finish! Have patience and apply the whole finish slowly and methodically over a period of a few weeks. It'll be well worth it.

Good luck!

Alex

[Mr. Foxen]

Danish oil is one of those undefined terms. Some of them are totally different things to others. I use Rustins Danish Oil, its tung oil and dryers, so its easy to use. Other stuff is wipe on varnish and totally sucks (Wilko own brand). You can also mix rustins stain with the oil. The oil matures over a fair time, and goes from smelling like solvents for a few days to smelling like stale nuts for a few weeks.

Here is a simple stain and oil job I did: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/213468-attempted-refin-of-a-washburn-force-40/