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I have not searched-I'm pretty sure I would not be able to narrow it enough. My memory has failed me. Any suggestions? "Elmer's White" keeps coming to mind-but I need to be relatively certain. Lots of work on a B---- neck. I had first tried Ivoroid binding and super glue and did not like my result. I was frustrated and hasty and pulled it off-of course where the glue had taken as I wanted, I managed to pull some slivers from the binding ledge. I rebound with the maple/purfled binding I mentioned a week ago with excellent results(one side-I haven't yet bent the other side for the 5th string hump). But I need to fix some small divots and this neck is going to be stained a dark chestnut leaving the binding natural. My stain/pigment is Colortone StewMac. It will be added to sealer coats of shellac. Thanks, Mike T.

What are you trying to do? If you are going to stain some glue in a dark color you may just use Epoxy and forget the dust....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Peter-I'm just trying to fill in a way that will not end up with dark inherently shiny places and a fill that will take my preferred staining regimen-very thin shellac(Hock Garnet) with the Colortone pigment. I will then French Polish or use hard oil(Pilkington's, an improved tru-oil). Pilkington's carries spirit stain nicely and colors very evenly. I am more likely to FP though. Thanks for helping me think on the issue. Mike T.

Mike,

I don't think any glue, when dried, will accept pigment very well. The best finishers I have ever seen (in furniture/architectural millwork) would stain and finish the piece, then do the repair, then apply finish over the repair and adjacent area. Their reasoning was that until you see how the bulk of the surface will look stained and finished, you cannot accurately predict what color the repair will need to be. Working in reverse, you may be able to add dye to glue, add sawdust, fill, let dry, and sand - and then try to match the general neck stain to the color of the patch.

Another approach would be to use tiny pieces of the neck wood, and perform a patch with what is basically solid wood - just a very small piece of wood. To do that, you may need to play surgeon, with an X-Acto, and carve a clean divot. (I'm assuming you now have ragged edges where the wood tore away.) With a clean divot, you'll be able to glue a small piece of wood in. Don't worry about starving the glue joint - use plenty of pressure to smash the new fragment in but not enough to crush the wood, and you'll have the thinnest possible glue line. Should look like grain, and become virtually undetectable under a finish.

Dennis

p.s. If you press ahead with your idea, consider that glue + light wood dust = darker, glossier "wood" that is probably impervious to stain (though you may be able to draw on top of the glue with a colored marker, then apply finish.) I read somewhere that the Martin shop uses wheat paste to fill-in voids in Spruce, well aware that any glue + sawdust will be darker than Spruce.

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thanks-I'll try several of the suggestions on the proverbial scrap. MikeT.

Perhaps only Todd Stock will really enjoy this. I needed to take height off the binding to get the right leverage while taping the glue up. If you have a saw makers vise it makes a fine vise for holding a binding strip while shaving it down (used my LN 102 bronze). Mine grips 10" at a time. mt

I ended up using maple dust and Hock Pale Shellac as a binder. By the way, the Super Soft II on the banjo 5th fret hump binding was a total success. mt