To mask or not??

[rocket]

In the past i've always totally masked up my binding and purflings prior to applying any spray on colours as in a burst and after all is done and masking is removed i usually have to go with a razor and scrape off any overspray, now i know that some builders prefer not to mask up at all and scrape the entire bindings of any unwanted colour prior to adding top coats, just wondering what some ANZLFers prefer to do, mask or not??
Cheers,, Rod.

[kiwigeo]

I prefer a mask....

[Nick]

I always mask up, I've tried several times over the years to find that 'just' right time to scrape paint from the bindings and it was either still too soft (very much depends on how thick you apply your paint or how many coats you give it and everybody is slightly different)or too dry and never left me with that nice crisp line I was after so rather than spend time fixing it up I've found it's easier to spend twenty minutes/ half an hour masking up. As you say, it's easy to remove any colour that might have got in under the tape.

[blackalex1952]

Does anyone spray the burst or stain prior to binding then apply the top coats when the instrument is finished?

[Nick]

Does anyone spray the burst or stain prior to binding then apply the top coats when the instrument is finished?

Would be very difficult, bindings should be scraped flush so you run the risk of removing paint or stain, also glue squeeze out would be hard to clean up without removing stain from the surrounding wood.

[rocket]

Thanks Martin,, how long have you had that mustache?
Rod.

[johnparchem]

I did not mask on the burst that I did. I am not very good masking and am never happy with the line I get. I built a custom scrapper with a notch just the size of the binding and used it to scrape the white bindings I had on a Les Paul type of guitar that I burst. I was very happy with the results. I do not have enough experience to really push the my way, only that I tried it and it worked out.

[simso]

I dont mask, always scrape

[Richard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbsZsSabPs

This video from Stewmac convinced me of the virtues of just scraping.

[GregL]

Scraping is just fine for plastic binding, but what about wood binding?

Thanks,
GregL.