I will never trust sharpies again! I used a red sharpie to touch up the red trim on a vintage White Owl box. Now the Sharpie ink rubs off on everything, including the clothing of the person holding the guitar (me)!
What is the best way to remedy this? Ideas I am considering:
- Wipe away as much of the Sharpie ink as I can with paper towel, kleenex, etc, then apply some kind of sealant to the box
- Use Exacto-knife to score and peel away narrow strips of red trim on the outer paper (on which the Sharpie ink was applied) then apply red acrylic craft paint to replace the red trim lines. Then probably apply a sealant in this case as well.
Has anyone dealt with this? How can I save this vintage box without messing it up more?
Thanks in advance,
/Mark
Replies
Just off on a tangent......notice your using one of those tele style 3 string bridges, can I ask how much your fretbord/neck is above the tp of the box and is your neck a straight thru or have you angled the neck/fretboard backwards at all??? Only interested as I have used one of these before and wasn't happy with the distance between the string height and the top of the box? Very Nice Box!
The fretboard is just above the box, and above the pickup, which half-overlaps the box. I have the pickup as far up the neck as possible to get the blues-tone of neck-position. Neck goes thru just below the box lid. The flat pickup from Humidor really helps.
Wow, thanks Mark. That pickup looks rather interesting! Just an interesting observation the "tele style bridges" obviously are more suited to your "standard" size neck dimensions than our Australian standard 40mm wide (readily available from Bunnings "hardware chain") the string spacings on the telel style bridge are just a tad to close together, from memory I think its bout 11mm spacing or so but 13mm seems better for us here to space the strings further apart on the fret board. Has there been a definitive answer or solution to the sharpie/texta dilemma yet????
My plan at this point is:
1st - slice away the affected thin strips of the boxes outer paper (which have sharpie ink)
2nd - seal the box with some kind of fixative because even gentle masking tapes harm the side and bottom artwork right now
3rd - apply acrylic craft paint to the sliced-away areas to replace the red trim
4th - seal up the box again to secure thepaint
Hope it works out ok ...
I use Beacon floor wax/polish as a sealant. don't know if they still make it, I've had the same quart for many, many years. I use sharpies a lot and have had all the problems from them. oil base finishes and poly can fade them, remove them, or alter the color completely. I was screwing around with a diddly bow, painted it flat black and wanted to see if red sharpie would show on it at all, it turned irridecent gold!!!!
if you use the floor polish, use more than one coat, you can dull finish if needed with fine grit paper or steel wool to match sheen on box.
Check out youtube videos on how to remove sharpie. Best bet would be to apply the sharpie to an unwanted surface as close to the one your trying to clear. Then try different things used in these videos to clear it off. Better to mess up something else besides that cool box.
For those who doubt the evilness of sharpies and clear coat sealers try this. Write something on a painted surface with a red sharpie. Then do the same on scrap wood. Wait till it dries. Then try to clear coat it.
Sam and I are 'Tru' believers in Tru-Oil (Birchwood Casey). Over bare wood, boxes, wood and paper, acrylic, and red Sharpie, we have never had a problem. 2,4,10 coats to the gloss you desire, sanding with 600-1500 in between.
If you do buy Tru-Oil, only poke a small hole in the foil with a guitar string, wipe the threads on the bottleneck with vaseline, and store it upside down in a Solo cup; Our top secret tips to keeping it fresh. A little goes a long way. Don't buy quarts.
Thanks
Huntz
Every guitar I have, even the most expensive, has playing wear and dings. They are like the wrinkles on your face. they tell a story.
Let it be.
Just "wiping off" won't work. I've wiped and wiped and wiped and it keeps coming up and leaving marks on clothing. Something more than that must be done or it will be unusable.
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