Inked it up and 3rd coat this morning, I'm in my happy place. I expect this bow to be in the mail by Monday at the latest. Will need to twist up a final string and put the shelf and strike plate on, plus I like to give it a couple days for the finish to more fully cure before putting in a shipping box. And I'll be honest, I kind of want to show it off to a couple of friends on Saturday before I never see it again.
*****
And because no one else is writing much here, I'll tell my story: Two years ago at ETAR I bought my first ThunderBird in gloss. I liked gloss finishes. Last summer I finally bought a satin kit but didn't use it until I did a couple of bows at Christmas, and even then in my rush I didn't think about the solids that make it different from gloss settling out. I didn't think to stir/shake sufficiently and was surprised to find the finish on those two bows looked identical to the gloss finishes prior. I haven't tried satin since until today.
Now I've always been frustrated with my finishes on bows, and I know some of that is that gloss shows all the imperfections. Sometimes I get it good enough (still not perfect), and sometimes I go all in and wet sand and then polish it to perfection. But as you can imagine, I hate finishing bows. What is super pleasurable up to that point becomes a challenge to keep motivated to get across the finish line as my recipient now knows.
I had two coats of gloss down on the bow and gave it a light sanding with 320 to take a couple little fish-eyes and a touch of orange peel off before the final coat. I inked it up and went to mix the finish only to find that the solids in the bottom of Part B were like a rock. I finally got it all free and had this giant ball of goo that I could never imagine dissolving. I got ahold of David and he assured me that was normal if I left it on the shelf for awhile, and to stir/shake it long enough and it would be good to go. (Part A wasn't too bad.) He was right and I was off to the races.
Now the bow is still hanging, and I won't know for sure how close to perfect it is until I can grab ahold of it and roll it around in the light, but dang does satin go on easier and more flawlessly. I expected it to be less likely to show any flaws, but it seems that the solids in it changes the way it lays down and it skins over/partially drys much faster so that I finally understand what is meant in the instructions about multiple very thin coats in quick succession.
Anyhow, I'm a bit slow to the party sometimes, but now I know why almost every bow I see (even from custom bowyers) is satin and not gloss. Sigh.
Topic: 2020 Bow Swap Progress Thread (Read 79988 times)
