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Just did a rosette with Redwood bur and it's very soft, dents/scratches if you look at it.
It's still slightly proud and will be drum sanded.
Client wants it finished in satin EV.
What would you use to stabilise/help protect it?
Thin CA / Epoxy / ?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yeah, I would saturate it with the thinnest CA, the ultra thin. Hopefully your channel is sealed with shellac?

Purf channels were sealed with shellac, but the burl was glued in with a generous quantity of TB without shellac in the channel.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hmm, well if the purfling channels were sealed, the endgrain of the spruce will be sealed so CA should still be ok?

Sure.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

You might be able to "harden" it up by saturating it with the finish you will be using since burls have a lot of endgrain that tends to absorb liquids. you could test it on scrap.
Someone gave me a bunch of burl sheets and I decided to make a similar rosette on the guitar I'm working on now.

Saturating with thinnest CA would be my solution as well. Buy a fresh bottle if necessary. It thickens over time.

I wouldn't risk CA... made the mistake once and ruined a top... never again... its true it should be sealed enough... but i wouldnt risk it...

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

I made a table of a curly redwood slab that was not suitable to resaw for tops. I finished with liberal coats of polyurethane, sanding between coats. I cannot remember how many coats before it even started to seal the pores and stop absorbing finish, but it was ore than 10. So, I guess whatever you use it may take many applications.

I ruined a top with thin CA too so I would at least advice to be very very careful. In fact I would only use thin CA if I planned and prepped for it and that would be to have 3 coats of shellac in the channel. It's probably low risk for you at this point but man let me tell ya if it wicks in it's ruined!

I had concerns about the redwood archtop I made. It was old wood, very bendable cross grain, and it seemed really easily scratched. A couple coats of Z-poxy for a finish after a few sealer coats, and I don't even think about it now. I don't try to scratch it, but it doesn't seem scratch prone.

I also put a shellac wash over it, because I didn't know that you could thin the Z-poxy way down and use it as a "shine" coat after smoothing it up with some 800 grit wet/dry and getting satin blotches.

Maybe the shellac made the surface harder than just epoxy?

I think that just putting your finish on will be enough.

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Why be normal?

Colin you could put on several coats of shellac first. It should seal any paths that the CA would take.

Dave

One nice thing about sealing the rosette with the same thing you will be finishing with is you don't have to worry about compatibility issues when you apply the final finish. If I have small places that need filling I will mix saw dust with the finish material (as the binder) because it seems to give a better color match than using the various glues some use.