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Well here we go!
I used masking tape to protect the frets in spots that needed a more work than others so I didn't risk too much unleveling. I wasent all that concerned about scratching them in general since I told the guy that there would be some crowning, polishing and possibly some leveling work that had to happen with them.
I am using my finger tips as a soft block here. The trick to doing this is that you want to apply only mild pressure and move around a lot so aas not to leave a finger shaped divit. Things get a little more hairy in the higher register were I ended up have to roll thew paper onto itself in order to get a tiny round sanding surface that would fit into the the frets beyond 21. In case you were wondering, I am in fact sanding against the grain. The reason this is not a problem is that I am going to be working this down to a polish much finer than the wood grain.
The grits I am going through are:
100g - just a little to smooth out the big bumps
150g- just a little bit more
220g- even more than that. I use this grit to work out the last of the heavy stuff since its actually a pretty heavy grit yet fine enough to leave a good finish. THis is also the point I started polishing the frets, though as with the wood, the heavier the grit, the more you want to go easy on it.
320g- At this point I blew off the neck and looked for flaws or spots I missed. Turned out there was drop filling that needed to be done so I did that before hitting it with this.
400g- Now we are starting to see some shine. This was the finish grit used at Rainsong when I worked there and you can totally leave it at 400 and have a nice finish however I can do better.
600g- At this point you are seeing some serious shine and able to see a lot of things in the wood you otherwise might have missed :)
0000 steel wool. This is the last "grit" I use in fret work short of actually breaking out a polishing wheel.
Once that is done, hit it with lemon oil or guitar honey and it will look better than anything sitting on the shelf at guitar center.
I used masking tape to protect the frets in spots that needed a more work than others so I didn't risk too much unleveling. I wasent all that concerned about scratching them in general since I told the guy that there would be some crowning, polishing and possibly some leveling work that had to happen with them.
I am using my finger tips as a soft block here. The trick to doing this is that you want to apply only mild pressure and move around a lot so aas not to leave a finger shaped divit. Things get a little more hairy in the higher register were I ended up have to roll thew paper onto itself in order to get a tiny round sanding surface that would fit into the the frets beyond 21. In case you were wondering, I am in fact sanding against the grain. The reason this is not a problem is that I am going to be working this down to a polish much finer than the wood grain.
The grits I am going through are:
100g - just a little to smooth out the big bumps
150g- just a little bit more
220g- even more than that. I use this grit to work out the last of the heavy stuff since its actually a pretty heavy grit yet fine enough to leave a good finish. THis is also the point I started polishing the frets, though as with the wood, the heavier the grit, the more you want to go easy on it.
320g- At this point I blew off the neck and looked for flaws or spots I missed. Turned out there was drop filling that needed to be done so I did that before hitting it with this.
400g- Now we are starting to see some shine. This was the finish grit used at Rainsong when I worked there and you can totally leave it at 400 and have a nice finish however I can do better.
600g- At this point you are seeing some serious shine and able to see a lot of things in the wood you otherwise might have missed :)
0000 steel wool. This is the last "grit" I use in fret work short of actually breaking out a polishing wheel.
Once that is done, hit it with lemon oil or guitar honey and it will look better than anything sitting on the shelf at guitar center.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 960px
File Size 162.8 kB
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