StewMac Dreadnought kit - how do you sand the binding without discoloring?

[Howard Roark]

I've glued the white binding strip to the guitar body and now I'm trying to sand it down to finish. When I sand it down with the rosewood, the dust from the rosewood gets ingrained into the binding and discolors it. Instructions say I can sand the binding with the wood at the same time, and frankly doing them separately would take forever and probably leave an uneven surface where the binding meets the wood. Am I doing something wrong here??? Please help! I want white bindings, they look dirty right now!

[Steve Senseney]

I have not done a Stewmac kit.

They are a very reliable and will offer excellent advice. I would encourage you to check with them.

The bindings are apparently plastic. Rosewood does have a oily surface. The color is getting onto the bindings. I you scrape the sides and binding, you will not generate as much fine dust and perhaps that would be better.

After you sand the sides, you might scrape the bindings to clean them, or try a solvent to clean them.

As always TEST ON SCRAP first.

You might try paint thinner, or try acetone, or try lacquer thinner. Which ever you try, use just a little on a small corner of a piece of cloth.

[Tim Douglass]

After you sand, take a razor blade to scrape the binding just enough to make it clean again.

[Mario Proulx]

Better still, stop sanding and start scraping! A cabinet scraper is the best tool for leveling bindings, as well as doing the final surface on the entire instrument, inside -and- out.

[Michael Lewis]

Compressed air usually clears most dust from wood surfaces, and wipe with a damp cloth.

Scrapers don't make the dust in the first place but you need to learn the skill of using them so they do the job you want and don't leave tracks, and for that you will spend a good sum of hours.

[Clay Schaeffer]

As you progress through the sanding grits the scratches in the binding will become finer and hold less rosewood dust, but for the last little bit a light scraping with a single edge razor blade, as Tim mentions, will remove the offending dust and leave a smooth surface. Scrapers will also work. Rounding and blunting the corner slightly can help keep the end from digging into the wood and leaving a line.

[Barry Guest]

From the pic, it looks like ivoroid binding to me. If you use acetone, it will dissolve the surface and make a real mess. As Mario said, scraping is the way.

[Barry Daniels]

It looks like there may be glue residue on the surface of the binding which the wood dust is sticking too. Glue residue needs to be removed by additional sanding or scraping.

[Ron Daves]

I'm a newbie. My second guitar has plastic bindings and rosewood sides. During the initial sanding process, the binding became contaminated with rosewood residue. I found that cleaning the binding up with a nice, sharp scraper cleaned things up nicely. Prior to putting on French Polish finish, I gave the bindings a spit coat of shellac and that helped. The further you go with the finishing process, the less and less you will have a problem as the plastic becomes nicely coated and not absorptive of any redwood residue. Best of luck with this. I feel your pain.

[Tom West]

SCRAPE..................!!!

[Randy Roberts]

Has anyone thought to recommend perhaps using a scraper? <g>