Curly Blackwood Long Neck Concert Uke

[Allen]

I've had some really amazing Blackwood put away for a spec build where I didn't have a client placing expectations or restrictions on what I wanted to create. It's impossible to capture in photos the way that this timber shimmers much like an opal under the light.

It's a 16" long neck concert with a 12" - 16" compound radius on the fret board. Australian Blackwood body and bindings. Finished in high gloss polyurethane.

[lamanoditrento]

Beautiful! I like the new asymmetrical heel. How are you liking the change to a bolt on neck?

[Allen]

The bolt on neck certainly helps with the streamlining of production.

[demonx]

That looks great! Beautiful timber and attention to detail, excellent work!

[Mark McLean]

Amazing timber Allen - and beautifully used!

[nkforster]

Lovely instrument, lovely finish. Are you spraying the poly? How do you find working with it? Humidity must be an issue where you are?

[Allen]

It's sprayed on Nik. I was a spray painter / panel beater for 35 years, so for me it was dead easy to apply. Shot with a HVLP mini jet gun. First time I've used this product. It's made by Mirotone and is their premium line of clear Polyurethane specifically for timber. No issues whatsoever.

I started out with 4 instruements ready for pore fill on Monday. Applied epoxy pore fill in the morning to all of them. My dry room at this time of year is about 42 degrees, so just after lunch they were all fully cured and I sanded them back and applied another coat. Tuesday sanded that coat of epoxy back and applied another coat.

Again just after lunch I sanded epoxy back and applied one full coat of the polyurethane sanding sealer for this product. It only needs a couple of hours to cure, but by then it was too late to think about doing anymore before beer-o-clock.

Wednesday moring sanding sealer was leveled out and one full wet coat of the polyurethane was applied and let cure overnight. Level sanded it on Thurday morning and then one more full wet coat. Friday morning it had cured overnight so it was level sanded out to P2000 and buffed.

That was 4 instruments through the entire process in 5 days and the best finish on an instrument I've ever done. Scraping back for the bridge showed that the finish is actually thinner than my lacquer finishes.

In lacquer that process is at least 1 month long but really should be 6 weeks. I can't see myself going back to lacquer now.