Aging Cellulose Nitrate Inlays- need help

[Bossman415]

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to age Cellulose Nitrate Inlays?

My buddy's vintage Gibson was brought in for a refret.

Unfortunately the shop who serviced it blew out 3 of his original inlays.

Any advice on the process of how to match some new material to the old inlays, or the names of experienced luthiers for restoration is appreciated

-Thanks!

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

Not knowing if any of the skilled luthiers here can do it (I bet they can), Historic Makeovers did some aging on mine when they replaced the fretboard on my Deluxe … but it won't be cheap.

 

[jkes01]

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to age Cellulose Nitrate Inlays?

My buddy's vintage Gibson was brought in for a refret.

Unfortunately the shop who serviced it blew out 3 of his original inlays.

Any advice on the process of how to match some new material to the old inlays, or the names of experienced luthiers for restoration is appreciated

-Thanks!

I have never done it myself, but some of the more experienced guys here use acetone. Supposedly takes some of the color of the rosewood and tints the inlays with it. You have to be extremely careful.

Search google with this.

site:mylespaul.com aging cellulose inlays

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

I thought acetone dissolved cellulose?????

 

[DaveR]

I think I've read some things here about soaking them in tea. Never done any aging or relic-ing myself, but there are a lot of threads around about it.

 

[jkes01]

I thought acetone dissolved cellulose?????

I guess that’s why you have to be really careful.

 

[ReWind James]

I had a few sets from DJ that I threw into a toolbox and forgot about for a few years. Just found them the other day and they have acquired a nice slight brown tint to them. They look so much nicer than when I put them in there, but I couldn't say exactly why.

 

[tigger]

I replaced the inlays on the '65 SG I was rebuilding. You can put them under a UV light for a few days to make them darker. They end up looking like this:

Note that these are block inlays and for instance on that SG the originals were much thinner and profiled.

 

[ARandall]

I thought acetone dissolved cellulose?????

It does, that is precisely why the acetone is able to somewhat permanently stain the inlay.
But its not like concentrated acid, where it is strong and a little can eat through considerable thickness of metal.....you would need an awful lot of acetone to fully dissolve an inlay.....and have it on there for quite a while.

 

[Skyjerk]

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to age Cellulose Nitrate Inlays?
!

Never do what they tell you, leave your room a mess all the time, never clean up after yourself, get called to the principals office frequently, throw parties when they are away on business, treat them like your personal bank.

Call them to bail you out of jail.

This process will age them 5 years to every one real year

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

It does, that is precisely why the acetone is able to somewhat permanently stain the inlay.
But its not like concentrated acid, where it is strong and a little can eat through considerable thickness of metal.....you would need an awful lot of acetone to fully dissolve an inlay.....and have it on there for quite a while.

Can acetone be diluted so that it'll still age the markers but not devour them?

 

[rockinlespaul]

Acetone will definitely melt cellulose nitrate inlays...be careful.

 

[ARandall]

Can acetone be diluted so that it'll still age the markers but not devour them?

It won't devour them.....especially if you're only wiping the surface with acetone on a cloth. Acetone will completely evaporate in about 3 seconds flat, so its effect in that scenario is incredibly limited......as I had already stated in the previous post.

 

[SlingBlader]

It won't devour them.....especially if you're only wiping the surface with acetone on a cloth. Acetone will completely evaporate in about 3 seconds flat, so its effect in that scenario is incredibly limited......as I had already stated in the previous post.

Yep, agreed. Level them, then you can literally wet sand them quickly with acetone and wipe back. The rosewood will stain the inlays. It will not instantly disolve them. Just use common sense and don't soak them.

 

[pshupe]

The old inlays would also shrink, so you may want to start with slightly smaller inlays. There are lots of pics on the web. I agree with the quick wipe with acetone. My firebird inlays darkened stubstantially when I did this. They almost went a slightly gold colour which I assume was from the fret board.

Regards Peter.

 

[Daniels Guitars]

I just use a bit of acetone on a rag and wipe across the rosewood onto the inlay, looks right to me

 

[greens]

I did the acetone trick recently on the advice of forum members and it worked very well. I used a q-tip back and forth and was careful to avoid the binding.

 

[ONEHERO]

I know this is necro thread- but just wondering if anyone else had success doing this?

 

[pshupe]

Do you have any specific pictures of what you would like to replicate? As noted above, if you wipe the board with acetone it should pull some of the colour out of the board and stain the inlays. This was a ziricote board and cellulose nitrate inlays with a quick wipe of acetone.

before -

after -

If you are looking for more vintage looking then you may want to sand the inlays so that their are gaps. Those inlays shrink over time.

shrunken inlays -

Cheers Peter.

 

[Roxy13]

I refretted one of my guitars not realizing it had cellulose nitrate inlays and when I used acetone to clean up little bits of CA on the fret edges I ended up smearing one onto the rosewood. That's when I realized what my inlays were. I'd be afraid to use acetone to do it myself. I had to get that off the fb and polish that inlay back out with a few grades of sandpaper.