Official Luthiers Forum!

So, I know there are many methods to grain filling. I was walking around home depot yesterday wondering what they keep in stock that would work. To be honest I hate ordering anything if I don't have too, and I try to get as much as possible local. I already have to order hardware and electronics as it is, when I finish a guitar I might have more than $100 lost in shipping charges alone.

I have even thought about buying a few products to test out. Since no hardware stores have a luthier sections, anybody have any ideas?

_________________
Whatever you do DON'T confuse me as an EXPERT, or MASTER, just a self learned trial and error guy. I had to build a dozen guitar before I found out what a "Luthier" even was (????)

You can sand egg white into the pores using 320 grit sandpaper.
Work small areas and use a razor blade to scrape off the excess slurry and aid in packing it into the pores.
It works amazingly well. Some woods will require a couple of applications.
Try it, it'll only cost you an egg.

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Bet you walked right past the acrylic base drywall spackle. Tint it with matching acrylic paint (~3oz plastic bottles) from the arts and craft section at your local store. Add black to the tinted spackle for the darker woods. Apply with a squeegee, dry for a day, sand back to the surface, re-apply, etc. The spackle and the surface needs to dry and finish shrinking between each coat otherwise your topcoat will orange peel. Plan on 3-4 coats. Try it on cut-offs under your top coat to get the tint right.

Benjamin Moore paste wood pore filler. You can color it with commercial stains or with artist's oil colors. If people tell you it leaves a "cloudy" appearance, don't listen. That's just because they haven't got all the residue sanded or buffed off after filling.

HOWEVER:

Be advised that this will fill the pores and give an opaque appearance to the pores--because they will be level with the surrounding wood fiber. I like this appearance. You might not.

Here's a picture of a highly-figured walnut banjo head plate, filled with this material, stained with a bit of dark walnut oil stain for contrast and tinted with a bit of cadmium red artist's oil color for warmth. See any cloudiness here?

That's right, BM's filler is a fine product. I use similar from Sherwin Williams. Got a gallon of it, I've done about 15 guitar necks with it and don't think I'll ever run out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glen, thanks for the tip about the Sherwin Williams product.
Patrick

Both CA (medium viscosity) and slow setting epoxy (I like Zpoxy) are great pore fillers, particularly for highly figured wood. Zpoxy does a very good job of popping the grain on wood like koa.