Thread: Ukulele Finish

What about the Hard Shellac advertised by U-Beaut?

I use spray pre-cat nitro for my builds but you're in good company with the u-beaut products.

minwax wipe on poly is easy to apply - nice finish - wipe on with a rag

birchwood casey tru-oil is also a great lowtech finish - same deal wipe on and gives a great gloss after a few coats - can be sanded in with wetndry for a glassier look

tru-oil has been used a lot for instrument finishing - its made for gun stock conditioning - get it at any gun shop

There's not much wrong with the traditional french polish as a low tech finish. It's non-toxic, cheap and easier to do than many people think. There is a good how to at this site http://www.milburnguitars.com/fpbannerframes.html This is the extreme and very traditional way of doing it, but you can cut corners by replacing the pumice gain filling part of it with a modern grain filler or by using egg white and wet and dry sandpaper.

Cheers
James

Id say french polish it, I just finished making that uke kit recently and it came up realy well. I just used the shellac flakes they sell at bunnings =P, I think its orange shellac which I think worked in my favour because the Mahogany was rather plane and pale.

A Few things I'd recommend to do with the kit are

1. If you have accsess to some tools like a rounter and some form of bending iron some indian rosewood binding really dresses the uke up.

2. Neck joint, The instructions just tell you to sand it to the curve and glue it. I doubt the strength of a glue only bond so I used 3 dowls in a trianglar formation as well.

If you are going to do an open pore finish dont use any burninshing compouds or waxes as they will be caught in the grain and ull have horrible little white marks when u look the uke on some angles (i learnt the hard way )

Here is a cool simple way to fill the pores in you want
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhk6rZ2UI1Y"]YouTube - Luthier Tips du Jour[/ame]

lastly consider notching the ends of the brances into the linings on the uke for added strength.

Have fun with it.