Official Luthiers Forum!

Just wondering what everyone does with there finished bridges
Finish,grain fill,just sand to high grit?

Mines ebony btw

Remember that one day your bridge may lift and need to be carefully removed and reglued. Heat is used for that making finishing the bridge not a serviceable thing to do.

I micro meshed mine or buffed them out and then used Howard Feed-n-wax if I wanted to condition it and pop figure.

I don't finish mine...

Sand, shellac, micromesh. Open pores. Only takes a few minutes. No worries if it has to be redone after heating to remove the bridge.

"0000" steel wool and just a touch of Min-Wax "Hard Finishing Wax" wool buffing pad.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I sand up the grits to 2000. Nothing else.


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Open pores. Micro mesh. At times I've used Tru-Oil or Tried and True. I think using something light is nice to just pop the grain and darken the wood a bit.


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I leave mine unfinished and sanded to low grit.

I found that when I sanded ebony or rosewood bridges to anything above 320 that the surface was very susceptible to marks from even light contact like a finger nail brushing across the surface, which leaves something that looks like a burnish mark. The higher the grit (sandpaper or micro mesh) the worse it was. It really bugged me so I stopped sanding to high grit. Do those who sand their bridges to fine grits see that happen? Maybe oil or wax would prevent that?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I have gone with no finish/high grit sand and buff but usually I wet sand with waterlox @4-600 grit then work my way up to the finer grit micro mesh or micro finishing papers. Fills most of the pores and gives a nice luster without really looking like it has finish on it.

I've had to remove a couple that I've done this to and the heat does dull things but nothing that 2-3min with fine paper or buffing can't fix.

For mine, especially ebony, I sand to 400 or 600 no more, then a quick buff on a couple of small (4" or so) buffs
on the drill press. Ebony will blacken them so I use them only for this purpose. Cheap, less than $10 each from hardware
store.

Here is a link to a few done this way
viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=45549
Last picture down.
Ken

Yep. Any moisture dulls it too, so finger prints show. That's why I started adding shellac.

I sand mine to a nice sheen then about two or three coats of fingerboard oil. Nothing on the gluing surface of course. It eliminates the 'moisture makes it matte' problem. And it is easy to touch up.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Sand to 600 max, 2/3 applications fingerboard oil with paper towel, quick buff with cotton wheel.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Always used 600 grit, then canning wax on bridges and F/B's. Rub it on and rub it in with a cloth. Done.

Double post.

Same as Hesh for Rosewood. For ebony I just sand and polish it before I glue it on.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"