String Stretching on a Minstrel Banjo

Comment by Dave Culgan on June 22, 2012 at 2:40pm

I already do it this way, and its a great instructional video. Myself, I enjoyed staring at that gorgeous figured maple for seven minutes. My car engine is rebuilt and back on the road so now I'm ready to start on my banjo kit. Is that a dye / amber shellac finish? If so, which dye did you use?

Comment by Bell Banjos on June 22, 2012 at 7:12pm

I mixed brown / red / yellow. When that was dry, I applied red / yellow (heavy on the yellow this time). Dye is weird. After those two applications it looked like dried mustard. But I had already put on a black coat first, and sanded the high spots away to reveal more of the stripes. When I hit it with boiled linseed oil it came to life and looked almost like it does here. Then the Amber Shellac gave it an "orange-ish" age. Finally it got the old time rottenstone treatment. The dyes are WATER based, not alcohol, otherwise the shellac would screw it all up.

Comment by Genford Brewington on June 23, 2012 at 10:37pm

Thank, Terry. That helped a lot. Also, you are making me look forward to that curly maple even more,

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