First of
all, to be able to work properly and comfortably, I built two shell racks out
of furniture chipboard leftovers - found on the street. I'll use the low one
for working (at an optimal working height of 106 cm - 3' 6") and the other one for
storing the other two shells when drying.
Secondly, I masked the inside of the shell with plastic foil and painters' tape (I used das Schonende from STORCH), since I don't want stain or lacquer to make a mess on the oiled finish. Doing it properly is time consuming, but it'll save you time in the end. You'll see.
Btw, plastic foil is upcycled IKEA HDPE mattress wrap.
I've always
wanted a dark green drumkit but never got the chance to own one.
The stain
is Dunkelgrün 158 from the German CLOU brand. It's inexpensive and an
instrument builder's favorite in Europe - from what I see when googling.
I used two
packs to make sure I have enough stain (500 ml or 1/2 quart) in case I should
apply two coats. You just have to mix it with warm water, I used distilled
water for security.
Note: the
glass container used to be filled with some delicious Valfrutta organic tomato sauce. Highly recommended for all your pasta cravings.
I'll try
the sponge application method. I actually cut a sponge in two to have more
control.
As you can
see, I try to stay organized and have a nice work area: clean table, convenient
container, natural light, handwritten hipster lettering...
Applying CLOU stain proved to be very very easy. You need to be careful not applying too much (or it will drip) or too little (you'll get uneven staining). But it's overall very controllable, fixing lighter of darker spots can be done by rubbing the sponge as long it's not completely dry.
Here's the
finished staining test on the 14" shell - that I'll be using for building the 7 1/4 snare drum by the way. The outside will be lacquered, so using the shell for testing was no issue.
I'm pretty
happy with the result. Deep green out of the box, that beautifully enhances the
vertical beech wood grain.
