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Damfino about whether I should put a filler coat of finishing resin on a black limba body, or proceed from bare wood to nitro.

Suggestions, explanations, and advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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Peter Havriluk

I need to know what your final goal is before answering....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

satin nitro

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Peter Havriluk

If you don’t pore fill it you’ll not have a smooth surface. The finish won’t fill if that’s what you mean.

Maybe I’m not answering the right question


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Let me try to rephrase my question: Not all species need a pore filler. Is 'black limba' one of them?

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Peter Havriluk

Get a magnifying glass and inspect it. You can easily see if there are open pores. I am not familiar with black limba.

Limba was used for solid body electric guitars. It is moderately coarse textured. You could "self seal" with nitro, but to save on time and material I would fill the grain if you want a smooth satin finish. Some satin finished items don't look too bad with the pores showing, so it's a matter of what you like.

I meant the color - not the texture. Filling is NOT necessary, and it's quite popular right now to NOT do it for a textured appearance and feel. I've done it before. I like the way my Yamaha BB-100 looks unfilled. Simply stained red, and given a few coats of TruOil....

I took pictures before it was wired up...
https://imgur.com/XgJuyHz

https://imgur.com/KBz6UjW

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have done 4 Black Limba builds and pore filled with the west system epoxy

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

To each his own but I could never get used to a guitar that wasn't absolutely glossy. It's what we grew up with in the 60s and anything less makes me think cheap guitar because that's where this unfilled pore thing originated. I'm glad that it is embraced by some as a good thing these days. Just not for me. Why did I feel compelled to share this, I don't know and I'm not trying to stir things up.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Hey, we're all cool here in my opinion. I can be a bit of a richard-head sometimes when I get grumpy, but I really do want to help if I can. Currently waiting for the OP to enter the thread again...

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

As the builder, you get to choose what looks good to you, even more so if you are not doing it for a living. Not every instrument has to be the ne plus ultra of the guitar maker's art. Sometimes building a guitar with a "17" or "18" level of trim is nice to do. Even though I use gloss lacquer, I often only buff them out to a medium gloss initially. Later they can be buffed to a high gloss if that is what is wanted. And a well done satin finish looks better than a poorly done gloss job.

If you are using 2K, then you can spray on a thick enough coat of finish to fill moderately coarse grains (not swamp ash basically).

If you are using nitro, you absolutely must pre coat with a non shrinking base layer, such as epoxy and it must be completely smooth before you move onto the next step.

Nitro has a almost no build strength, it will shrink forever into infinity, and if the coat is too thick they will be prone to checking. Unless you use whatever Gibson uses, because they spray a THICK layer of nitro onto their bodies.

Therefore whatever you use to fill the grain must be non shrinking, even if it's 2k clear before nitro topcoat.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Back in the morning. Z-poxy to the rescue. Thank you Mr Tellier. My finish of choice is rattle-can Minwax satin nitro. I've had good results. Finishes are completely filled and level, just not glossy. Technique is to alternately shoot/sand until no more shiny spots after sanding and then a last shoot. Done.

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Peter Havriluk

Sounds like you have answers and a plan. Post pix when it's complete.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

First application of z-poxy this morning. Sanded the back a few minutes ago (14 hours). Without a doubt, this wood needed a pore filler. I found it hard to tell, I think by virtue of the light bare wood color, but after block sanding the pores and irregularities along the grain show up in all the shiny spots and streaks. And this wood was never palm-sanded, but either in the thickness sander before fabrication, or block sanding after it was assembled. Nice trip down the learning curve, I bought two additional sets of the stuff.

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Peter Havriluk

YES it has pores it needs filled if you want shiney gloss
for plain satin you can go without but I would still give it a coat

I use aqua coat

I don't like the smell of epoxy only a personal thing there are many fillers and when it comes down to it , finish is as much about
a technique as product. Learn what the product likes to give you the results your looking for.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John,

Minwax (on your good advice) satin rattle-can nitro creates an almost-glossy finish, much to my liking. I do surface prep in an attempt to create a finish that looks to be on the path of glossy but doesn't arrive. Complete pore filling seems to be complementary.

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Peter Havriluk

always willing to share what I learn

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it