Thank you Mamie, I have some repairs to do on my old 1946 Gibson. The Oxalic acid demonstration was a big help. The Potasium Permanganate , demonstration is also of great help. Nice info for the future ....Thank again Alberta Dave
I could listen to you talk all day...I watched this video, but I will have to watch it again. I was buzzing out on your voice and didn't take any of it in. Nice work Mamie.
Hi Mamie, Just wanted to say that I find these kinds of videos like yours and Freddy's Frets in Niagara on the Lake, who is a friend of mine extremely interesting. I would never have the patience or skill to ever do any kind of luthier work, but I greatly admire the skill and patience that it takes to do this. I think It's really a gift to do this kind of work, not anyone can just do this. Keep up the videos. Thanks Michael Newell from Niagara Falls, Ontario
I wish I had seen this two weeks ago! I might have gone a different direction with an instrument I just finished up...only my second repair/refinish piece. My work was okay, but now I see how it could have been better. I'm saving this vid for future reference. Excellent presentation!
Multi-talented woman!! Have just listened to your great singing voice and lovely playing today, for the first time! Already downloaded to my phone. Regards from Australia.
You said at 6:46 "stained it several times" but obviously you meant to say "oxidized it". Nice vid, very informative. Not that I'll ever use the information. hehe Liked your voice and personality, too. Very soothing.
Oxalic acid is amazing stuff - great for cleaning rust off too. You can bleach wood with it in strong saturations. If you have very dirty wood you can paint it with a solution, leave it overnight then wash it off with a floppy brush and running water (bigger pieces than shown here!) and it comes up like new. I had a 100 year old vase stand carved from mahogany that had awful old varnish on so I washed it with caustic soda (strong alkalai) that ate the varnish and turned the wood black, I rinsed it off then washed it with oxalic acid which restored the wood's colour. When it was dry the piece looked absolutely new!
This is wonderful. Many thanks for posting it! One technical error: manganese dioxide is not actually volatile. It is a black powder that doesn't melt until just below 1,000 degrees F. (Potters occasionally use it in glazes.) There are RUclips videos showing what happens when you mix KMnO4 with H2SO4; it gets very hot. Manganese compounds, btw, have interesting toxicity. Frankly, I'd wear latex or nitrile gloves when handling permanganate. Just sayin'.
We use oxalic acid on sailboats to clean up teak. Works great. Amazing to see it as a kind of bleach for guitars. You can buy oxalic acid at the hardware store packaged as "Barkeeper's Friend."
Patrice, sometimes the only way to properly repair the top of a guitar is to remove it and yes, it can be glued back on. Also, wow, what an awesome video!
This is outstanding - thank you very much for the very professional and useful chemistry lesson. ps if the potassium permanganate solution gets onto a gluing surface, will it affect adhesion - that is, would the gluing surface need to be scraped or sanded clean?
When it is cheaper to buy a better sounding guitar than repair the old one (collecters notwithstanding) That is why all the old guitars sound great. The terrible sounding old ones were tossed.
Interesting. What, if any reason, would you prefer bleaching the wood with oaxalic acid rather than say, for instance, chloramide T, aka: library bleach, which has a half life of about 30 minutes. Wouldn't acids continue to react indefinitely, increasing the potential for structural deterioration? Just curious. Thanks.
Man, what a great teacher. I wonder where she learned her craft. Her explanations had my complete attention. I wish I had her as a Geometry teacher in HS! lol If you guys say she plays also I will check her out.
Might have been mentioned already, but you can also oxidize wood with a solution of iron oxide in vinegar; I've had good luck by putting a grape sized bit of steel wool in a small jar of vinegar (about a cup) and letting it sit for a couple of days before I use it.
Does wood oxidize under a typical lacquer finish, or is it just the finish that changes color? ...in other words for a patch to look 100% right do you treat the wood and then finish with a tinted top coat or can you get away with just tinting the top coat to match
This does perfectly well to approximate the look of older wood but I wonder what happens to the tone, does this chemical stay in the wood or dissipate into the air, is it alkaline or acidic, and does the wood disintegrate after 10 or 20 years like other coloring agents (Nitric acid, ammonia and tannic acid, etc). If it stays on the wood, is there a way to remove it after application to stop further action?
very informative post , wish Mamie had some advice regarding refurnbishment on nitro finishes , i cant seem to find anything to take small scratched out of my Gibson LP and no i dont want to just play it like that , i prefer my guitars to look good.
At 5.30 she substituted the contents of the jar with polish Barszt, or beetroot soup, I 've often thought that a beetroot rubbed on to wood would work for well as a stain, it works with blood plums and cherries.
Hi Mamie I'm new here but have been playing guitar most of my life . Question: Are you going to put that guitar back together again or is it just for demo purposes?
Mamie, Would you know how to restore the shine to very old Pearloid. I have a 90 year old banjo with a fret board and head stock overlay of Pearloid but it is extremely dull. (For those who don't know, Pearloid is a variety of celluloid which is a very old type of plastic.)
i noticed the other day, that you can purchase small containers of potassium permanganate at walmart. In the camping section, it is sold as a water purifier.
Amazing - All I knew about Potassium Permanganate was from high school. Somehow we learned that if you put this stuff into some glycerine and wadded it up in a paper towell it would burst into flames. Who knew it would stain wood? Big Ron
I'd say a lot of or most of the discolouration in the top's cracks and pick damage was dirt, grease and oil. All of which would respond better to other cleaning compounds provided they are compatible with and didn't interfere with the finish type.
I'm having some cognitive dissonance with any color or oxidation matching I. Yes, I do want an historic guitar restored or maybe just maintained but I don't appreciate the hiding of the repair. I'm sure a Master would see it but it would be hidden from the lesser trained especially inside the instrument. If it is being traded commercially, accompanying documents must have equal provenance. Is this just common practice ? Should I look out for this on quote Original condition pieces.
Half the people in the world will pay an extra grand for a "relic-ed" guitar, the other half will pay bank to have the finish brought back to new. I love honest wear myself! is anyone as cool as Mamie Minch?
Interesting. Oxalic acid is contained in spinach, Swiss chard, many teas, chocolate. You are supposed to avoid these foods if you have had kidney stones.
Excellent information and excellent presentation: smooth, unhurried, complete. We definitely need to see more from Mamie.
Thank you Mamie, I have some repairs to do on my old 1946 Gibson. The Oxalic acid demonstration was a big help. The Potasium Permanganate , demonstration is also of great help. Nice info for the future ....Thank again
Alberta
Dave
I could listen to you talk all day...I watched this video, but I will have to watch it again. I was buzzing out on your voice and didn't take any of it in. Nice work Mamie.
Hi Mamie, Just wanted to say that I find these kinds of videos like yours and Freddy's Frets in Niagara on the Lake, who is a friend of mine extremely interesting. I would never have the patience or skill to ever do any kind of luthier work, but I greatly admire the skill and patience that it takes to do this. I think It's really a gift to do this kind of work, not anyone can just do this. Keep up the videos. Thanks Michael Newell from Niagara Falls, Ontario
Is that Willie's backup guitar?
I wish I had seen this two weeks ago! I might have gone a different direction with an instrument I just finished up...only my second repair/refinish piece. My work was okay, but now I see how it could have been better. I'm saving this vid for future reference. Excellent presentation!
Multi-talented woman!! Have just listened to your great singing voice and lovely playing today, for the first time! Already downloaded to my phone.
Regards from Australia.
Wonderful! Dense material, incredibly useful! Thanks so much (if you're still reading comments from a vid you did 7 years ago!).
You said at 6:46 "stained it several times" but obviously you meant to say "oxidized it". Nice vid, very informative. Not that I'll ever use the information. hehe Liked your voice and personality, too. Very soothing.
jehovahuponyou ;flksjdpfogiwjafposzjfgn;ladskjrgm;alsekrjft
TruthSurge
YOU BETTER HAVE TYPED THAT WITH A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!
ROFL!
:^)
jehovahuponyou look at the context. :) :) :)
where... where?
The Trade Secrets videos are always good but this is one of the best ever.
Oxalic acid is amazing stuff - great for cleaning rust off too. You can bleach wood with it in strong saturations. If you have very dirty wood you can paint it with a solution, leave it overnight then wash it off with a floppy brush and running water (bigger pieces than shown here!) and it comes up like new.
I had a 100 year old vase stand carved from mahogany that had awful old varnish on so I washed it with caustic soda (strong alkalai) that ate the varnish and turned the wood black, I rinsed it off then washed it with oxalic acid which restored the wood's colour. When it was dry the piece looked absolutely new!
This is wonderful. Many thanks for posting it! One technical error: manganese dioxide is not actually volatile. It is a black powder that doesn't melt until just below 1,000 degrees F. (Potters occasionally use it in glazes.) There are RUclips videos showing what happens when you mix KMnO4 with H2SO4; it gets very hot. Manganese compounds, btw, have interesting toxicity. Frankly, I'd wear latex or nitrile gloves when handling permanganate. Just sayin'.
We use oxalic acid on sailboats to clean up teak. Works great. Amazing to see it as a kind of bleach for guitars. You can buy oxalic acid at the hardware store packaged as "Barkeeper's Friend."
stumbled on this vid.. then realized your a killer string player and great singer :) great work :)
Would love to have seen how the entire restoration went.
Patrice, sometimes the only way to properly repair the top of a guitar is to remove it and yes, it can be glued back on. Also, wow, what an awesome video!
This is outstanding - thank you very much for the very professional and useful chemistry lesson.
ps if the potassium permanganate solution gets onto a gluing surface, will it affect adhesion - that is, would the gluing surface need to be scraped or sanded clean?
So...when do you actually throw a guitar away?
when it says "made in china" on it ;)
When it is cheaper to buy a better sounding guitar than repair the old one (collecters notwithstanding) That is why all the old guitars sound great. The terrible sounding old ones were tossed.
Interesting. What, if any reason, would you prefer bleaching the wood with oaxalic acid rather than say, for instance, chloramide T, aka: library bleach, which has a half life of about 30 minutes. Wouldn't acids continue to react indefinitely, increasing the potential for structural deterioration? Just curious. Thanks.
Man, what a great teacher. I wonder where she learned her craft. Her explanations had
my complete attention. I wish I had her as a Geometry teacher in HS! lol
If you guys say she plays also I will check her out.
Man I've been wondering about this for ages, amazing video! Mamie is also an amazing player and singer if you do a search.
What!? She sings too?! Mmmmmary mmmeee!
Might have been mentioned already, but you can also oxidize wood with a solution of iron oxide in vinegar; I've had good luck by putting a grape sized bit of steel wool in a small jar of vinegar (about a cup) and letting it sit for a couple of days before I use it.
great tip on the cupping!
I like her voice a lot
Excellent instructional video. Easy to watch and understand. Very useful! Thanks
Does wood oxidize under a typical lacquer finish, or is it just the finish that changes color? ...in other words for a patch to look 100% right do you treat the wood and then finish with a tinted top coat or can you get away with just tinting the top coat to match
Would be cool to see restoration of that old guitar
Do you have to neutralize the wood treated with oxalic acid before refinishing?
Will oxalic acid lessen superglue darkening? For those cracks fixed before discovering it etc?
btw, does anyone know are there any regulations for this type of acid in EU?
This does perfectly well to approximate the look of older wood but I wonder what happens to the tone, does this chemical stay in the wood or dissipate into the air, is it alkaline or acidic, and does the wood disintegrate after 10 or 20 years like other coloring agents (Nitric acid, ammonia and tannic acid, etc). If it stays on the wood, is there a way to remove it after application to stop further action?
very informative post , wish Mamie had some advice regarding refurnbishment on nitro finishes , i cant seem to find anything to take small scratched out of my Gibson LP and no i dont want to just play it like that , i prefer my guitars to look good.
Some useful information, well explained and great presentation! Thanks very much.
Girls who work on guitars are cool
Yes Inddeedy, and this Maimie has a rather sultry way about her!
Could I do this to a bare Tele neck? I am strongly considering this for a relic-ing project.
Thank you! I was just about to cosider dye.
i have used muriatic acid on hardwood floors. is oxolic acid a usable treatment for that process? is it too weak?
At 5.30 she substituted the contents of the jar with polish Barszt, or beetroot soup, I 've often thought that a beetroot rubbed on to wood would work for well as a stain, it works with blood plums and cherries.
Hi Mamie I'm new here but have been playing guitar most of my life . Question: Are you going to put that guitar back together again or is it just for demo purposes?
wonderful & impressive tutorial!
How on earth do U end up with a job like that and learn all that stuff?. Nice Job True Crafts Person
Mamie, Would you know how to restore the shine to very old Pearloid. I have a 90 year old banjo with a fret board and head stock overlay of Pearloid but it is extremely dull. (For those who don't know, Pearloid is a variety of celluloid which is a very old type of plastic.)
Hi there. Is it possible to use wood stains as well?
Great video, very interesting. but I could never apply those chemicals with such finesse and precision myself.
Potassium Permanganate is also used in water treatment.. I got it on my hands years ago, took for ever to fade lol
i noticed the other day, that you can purchase small containers of potassium permanganate at walmart. In the camping section, it is sold as a water purifier.
What does that do to sound? Isnt it better?
Were can we pick up these chemicals Mamie?
Good vid, thanks!
Thank you Mamie for some more great info.
Amazing - All I knew about Potassium Permanganate was from high school. Somehow we learned that if you put this stuff into some glycerine and wadded it up in a paper towell it would burst into flames. Who knew it would stain wood?
Big Ron
Excellent presentation. Thank you.
Thank you. Very clear and valuable.
ชื่อเพลง *สีหมึกแห่งความรัก*
มีปากกาอยู่ด้ามหนึ่ง เปรียบเหมือนหัวใจดวงหนึ่ง หัวใจดวงนั้น ขาดสีสันของหมึกคอยมาเติมเต็ม เมื่อสีหมึกนั้นจืดจางลง มองไม่เห็นหนทาง ปากกาที่มีแต่ด้าม เขาไร้ความรักมาเติมเต็ม เธอมองเห็นฉัน เหมือนสีหมีก ในปากกาด้ามนั้นไหม ความรักที่ฉันมอบให้เธอ ยังคงเป็นเหมือนเช่นเคย ไม่เลยไม่เคยจืดจาง เหมือนสีหมึกในปากกาด้ามนั้น ไม่เคยเปลี่ยนไป มาจนทุกวันนี้ เธอยังใช้ขีดเขียน ใช้เรียนรู้เรื่องราวอีกมากมาย จากสีหมึกแห่งความรักที่ฉันมอบให้ เรียนรู้ทุกข์และสุข ปนอยู่กับความเศร้า ถึงแม้บางครั้งจะเหงา เรายังอยู่ด้วยกัน ตราบจนวันสุดท้าย ของลมหายใจ
*จบ*
Would hydrogen peroxide work as well to lighten wood
I'm impressed Manie.....
None of that is condescending.
I'd say a lot of or most of the discolouration in the top's cracks and pick damage was dirt, grease and oil. All of which would respond better to other cleaning compounds provided they are compatible with and didn't interfere with the finish type.
Why would you oxide a portion of wood on the inside of the guitar?
Well, Mr Bonehead Sir: As she explains in the video, to make a new part match the patina of the parts around it.
look, go to the gorcery store, barkeepersfreind a brand of cleanser like ajax is mostly oxalic acid, great cleanser too
Mamie is so cute and did a nice job!
How about a few guitars that hung on the wall with a few smokers?
Amazing techniques.
hi could tea be used for doing the same thing for darkening the wood .
nice voice
Aye! and a rather fetching lass methinks
Great video.
I'm having some cognitive dissonance with any color or oxidation matching I. Yes, I do want an historic guitar restored or maybe just maintained but I don't appreciate the hiding of the repair. I'm sure a Master would see it but it would be hidden from the lesser trained especially inside the instrument. If it is being traded commercially, accompanying documents must have equal provenance. Is this just common practice ? Should I look out for this on quote Original condition pieces.
potasium permaganate is also a very powerful laxitive
this is some damn good info!
refreshingly different...thanks.
shes got skillz!
Did she just said she cut the top out of a beautiful Parlor 100-year-old acoustic guitar?
+Joao Repolho Restoration sometimes may involve making repairs to the bracing of the guitar, so you kind of have to remove the top.
Except she did it so she could ship it in her suitcase... I guess its still better than trying to ship the whole guitar though
I'm not sure about "beautiful.," not yet at least
One of the best Videos in a long time... at least a month, jk
Great Chemistry tricks
Please give Willy Nelson's guitar a bath with the manganizy stuff.
Everything the light touches.....
is our kingdom
You are one cool lady.
Nice vid!
The cup she dips her finger in is filled with water.
Half the people in the world will pay an extra grand for a "relic-ed" guitar, the other half will pay bank to have the finish brought back to new. I love honest wear myself! is anyone as cool as Mamie Minch?
I was an electrician for a few years and we didn't always take the "safe path". If you know what you're doing, you can usually skip smaller stuff.
Mamie, love your work. Can I work for you, please?
oops - oxidize wood not stain wood. Sorry!
ptassium permaginate is a powerful laxitive too, carfull or your going to have a very unpleasent day
Good info. BTW, very cute! :)
Interesting. Oxalic acid is contained in spinach, Swiss chard, many teas, chocolate. You are supposed to avoid these foods if you have had kidney stones.
Then all I have to do is come up with the rest of the guitar... If only I had a dollar every time I've uttered that
You did what? You destroyed a 100 years old guitar to do a chemical demo? Can the top be glued back on?
Next I am going to watch a video about watching paint dry.
You're so damn smart
caring about the cosmetic appearance of the inside of a guitar .......... that just going a step tooooo far for me I'm afraid
Who wants to pay for an old thing like that ??
I could not understand a word !
i know you.. retrofret!
I love how people need to be told to not drink acid :D
Common sense is also to put gloves !
"Don't drink it" :-D
marry me ;-)
No gloves or protection eyeglasses? Come on guys?!
Ah She obviously is not the type to be knocking things over. Not like us inferior males.
that look like grape drink...
Wood