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Maple Necks and Kiwi Brown Shoe Polish


1oasis1

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So i been kicking around the idea of staining my bone dry maple neck on the Squier affinity i have. I been told the Brown Kiwi shoe polish is a affordable easy way of doing this. Has anyone here done so? can you walk me through this?

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I've done it a few times in the past, but was not overly happy with the results. A little too brown for my taste. You do need to sand the neck down with some fine sandpaper to get the color to hold, or it will rub off.

 

I switched to this stuff, available at Woodcraft for about $5.00. Looks more natural and, again if you sand, will not rub off. It's a tint for paint.

 

832391_230.jpg

 

 

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2005522/16591/Maize-Yellow--06--20-ml.aspx

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That came out beatutiful. How many bottels did you use? did you have to tape the frets? dot inlays? im a total newbie to this so i need the help. :-)

 

 

It's a very concentrated tint. That little 20ml bottle will probably tint 100 necks. Takes very little. I just rub it in...don't tape anything. It's not going to stick to the metal frets, so you really don't need to worry about that. Dries fairly fast too.

 

Edit: Even though it looks like it might be orange, it doesn't come out that way on the wood. The color is Maize Yellow.

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What sand paper did you use? did you reseal it afterwards. Take of the tuners?

 

 

220 grit, very lightly sand, just enough to take any finish off. No sealer afterward, as I kinda want it to dirty up and wear down naturally with playing. Yes, I took all the hardware off.

 

On this neck, I sanded the brand logo off. Just did a tele neck though and did not remove the logo at all...just a little sanding.

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I tinted the necks of my Strat and Tele with Kiwi and I was happy with the results. I just wiped on the Kiwi fairly thinly, let it sit for a few minutes (maybe five) and then wiped it off. No sanding required. Repeated until I was satisfied with the results. Sure it isn't perfect. There are spots near frets and edges that got a little darker than the rest of the neck (only noticeable up close if you're looking for them). But it's certainly a LOT better than the pale white necks were before. If it was a custom shop Strat I wouldn't do it...but for my MIMs or a Squire I think the results were more than satisfactory.

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I did it to my 2001 MIM Strat. No sanding. Used a cloth for the large areas and toothpicks/Q-tips near the frets and tuners. I did it in sections, left it on for 2 -3 min. and wiped off with a clean cloth. It came out great and still looks good. Make sure you use the Kiwi brown in the can.

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Same here, just wiped it on with no sanding, let it sit a few minutes as the others have mentioned. I've done three necks like this, 2 Mighty-Mite and 1 no-name clone Tele. Worked well every time.

 

V55, maybe it's because you sanded the finish a bit that yours came out too brown?

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Same here, just wiped it on with no sanding, let it sit a few minutes as the others have mentioned. I've done three necks like this, 2 Mighty-Mite and 1 no-name clone Tele. Worked well every time.


V55, maybe it's because you sanded the finish a bit that yours came out too brown?

 

 

Actually, I never sanded any of the necks that I used the shoe polish on. Didn't for the first couple with my new approach, but started the sanding when it didn't sink into the wood well enough.

 

I still have some...maybe I'll give it another try on the next one...but I do like this tint stuff because it's fast and easy to work with.

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Hmmm...sounds interesting... think this Kiwi business might work on my HW1 P bass? It's blonde, I wanna darken up the body too...and then maybe buff it up to gloss...make it look old! I did leave it out in the sun over the summer and that DID actually work in darkening it...but there's no sun now an I kinda want it a bit darker...

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