When staining was done - 2 passes with intermediate sanding - the surface showed flaws here and there that needed to get fixed. I could have left it as it was, but see it like some kind of restoration laboratory.
1. Making it darker
I used some CLOU stain and black artist acrylic, mixed together to get a slightly darker green. The main difference is that thanks to acrylic paint, it sticks better.
Applied with a small point brush, it helps you:
- Covering unstained spots caused by wood paste, as I wrote earlier, made with too much binder
- Adding "faux figuring" on wood patches or where staining failed or wasn't even
One golden rule: be subtle and work with thin layers, with very little paint.
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| Here I redrawed the wood figuring. You'll notice cross grain sanding marks. They were made by one of the previous owners, probably when rewrapping. I tried to sand them off, but wasn't able to remove them without damaging the outer ply. I'll try to fix that afterwards. |
2.Making it lighter
Two different methods: sand it very lightly with 400 grit, till wood begins to show through. Or use clean water and remove stain progressively.
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| Some tryout on the test shell |
Most fixed areas can be blended together sanding it lightly with 400 or with scotchbrite pad, depending on the desired effect.
It's always hard to tell the border between underdoing it or overdoing it, but I guess I did my best.
