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When I visited Wayne Henderson I told him I was planning to use natural colored Behlen's Pore O Pac pore filler, but tint it with dye, and he told me that he uses Pore O Pac, too, but he always uses the pre-tinted kind.

Well, my Pore O Pac filler was unopened so I took it back to Woodcraft and swapped for the mahogany colored stuff.

Now I'm wondering if it's too dark on my new test piece.





Hm, I didn't look closely, but were Wayne's pores little dark streaks too? Does it matter that much?

Why didn't anybody warn me about how messy this stuff is?

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Martin: Think your test piece looks super. Having the pores of Mahogany very dark is one of its nicer looks IMO. Have fun and take care.
Tom

I don't understand your question. You used a pore filler, and it looks great. so why do I want to use a pore filler? because I want it to look good, too.

I started the thread because I was wondering about what others thoughts were, about having little dark pores. I hadn't been paying close attention to these details in the past because I'm new to finishing. I was just wondering if there was a woodworker 'thing' about having pore fill be the same color.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Thanks, that does help.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Martin,

For what it's worth, I think the samples you show look great.

You might try putting some finish on them and see how it looks that way, but I think it's fine.

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Jim Hansen

Filling is part of the finish process. If you are doing a martin style finish you want the color dark. Martin uses a 2 step staining process with red mahogany first ,then brown Mahogany. The pore filler they use a a dark brown , almost the color of hershey's syrup. The also use a spirit based filler and it is applied and buffed into the pores. You cannot get a good gloss finish without this step. Using lacquer and filling that way will over time show some sinks at the pores.
Filling is one of the base steps to finishing and one of the hardest to master.

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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, are you saying that Martin uses a similar type pore fill (like that mentioned at the top of the thread?)

I think the question should be, does this type of pore fill achieve the same or similar result as zpoxy without the toxicity and trouble associated with epoxy. And, will it sink over time.

Mike

Yes Martin uses a similar product as mentioned in the first post. Zpoxy does have a different appearance than the mineral based paste fillers

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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

I like the medium brown walnut tinted version. Gibson use this color as do a few others.

I have restored several old style 18 Martins and have never been able to beat the match in color
I get with McFadden's (Seagrave) Walnut pore filler. It's just amazingly close to the old Martin filler
and color. Nothing I've used works as well, used it for 25 years. Am holding my breath for the new stuff
to come along and hope it's the same formula and color.
I use their Rosewood filler for Koa and find it works well. Never liked their Rosewood for Rosewood, just
seemed off. Have used Walnut there with some good results as well.
Just my experience.

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

So do I understand thay you use McFadden's Walnut pore filler on both mahogany and rosewood? If so what does it do to the color of the rosewood?
Chuck

Martin, one thing that makes a big difference in using paste pore filler is applying a seal coat before the filler. This makes cleaning the residue off much easier, but the best thing is it results in a cleaner fill job.

It also help to prevent bleeding of the tint from the filler to else ware other then the pores.