Rubbing Out the Tru-Oil Finish

I will confess I got a bit lazy with taking pictures on this amplifier build.  Some of the processes n' stuff I used on this build have been documented on the Surfcaster build, so you can look there if you want to read more.

The frame that will go around the chassis is maple.  I searched through a bunch of pieces at the Despot and found one that had some nice flame.  Who woulda thunk it?

For the finish, I first stained it with a weak mixture of Color-Tone amber waterbased stain mixed with a little medium brown.  This is the same mixture I used on the retro Telecaster I did...except I thinned this with more water.  I wanted a shade that was a tint, but not a heavy color, so I figured I could better control the color if the stain was a bit weaker.

After the stain, I used Tru-Oil for the finish coats.  I'm starting to really dig this stuff.  Although I had yet to figure out how to get a high-gloss finish on it.  I read about the spray version of Tru-Oil, which allegedly is more glossy than the liquid.  Naturally, I had to give it a try.  Hoooookay.

The spray does give more gloss, but it is much harder to control.  The coats I put on were too heavy and began to run in spots.  So I sanded them back and went back to the liquid Tru-Oil.   Still in search of more gloss, I decided to try rubbing the finish out with pumice stone 4F and then rottenstone.  Guess what?  It worked great.  The picture above was taken when using the rottenstone.  The pumice stone and rottenstone are very fine polishes...they don't cut much and really brought a nice gloss to the finish.  It's probably best if the Tru-Oil 'cures' a few days before you take any compound to it.  Remember it's a very thin finish and with too much rubbing, you may go back down to bare wood.