Day Eleven

The last topcoat (the third) has been applied to the front of the body and the front of the headstock only. When yesterday’s topcoat on the headstock was adequately dry, I wrote my signature on the headstock, eliminating any suggestion that the guitar was a throw-out from a Maryland factory! I used an ultra-thin nib Posca pen. By this morning the writing was dry and firm and when I gave the headstock and the end grain of the scoop cutout a final topcoat there was no smearing or spreading of the signature.

Finally, I have given a coat of the same ‘stronger’ dilution to the front of the body and, for the first time, dried it initially lying flat. This eliminated any possibility of a stray run and has left the surface as close to a high gloss finish as I was going to get with varnish on the unfilled flamed-maple veneer top.

However, that’s not going to be the end of work on the body. I discovered I had some Meguiar’s and T-cut rubbing compounds and bought a pack of three buffing wheels for my drill. Once today’s coatings have thoroughly dried I’m going to buff and polish the body to maximise the gloss and, with luck, even get a bit of a wet-look about it.