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Last night I was filling gaps in my binding ala Hesh's tutorial and had the idea why not pore fill in the same manner. In other words brush on thinned titebond then use 220 wet/dry paper to create kind of a slurry of dust and glue to fill the pores
Just a thought

Richard

I also am curious about some of the traditional grain filling methods. Courtnall’s book mentions mixing rosewood dust and glue as a filler prior to French polishing but doesn’t go into any details about how to implement this. Edit: upon re-reading Courtnall, the rosewood dust and glue apparently are for filling holes and defects but not for grain filling.

Joe

I'd be more inclined to use a slurry of shellac and sand that in rather than glue. I have done this in practice for french polishing but not on a real instrument but I understand it, along with the egg white method, are common for the french polish folks. Any of these sand-it-in methods fill the pores with opaque filler so it will enhance the grain but will not leave it 3-D looking, You will not be able to see into the pores like you would with other transparent/translucent fillers.

Alan D.

PVA glues dry a whitish/yellow colour and shrink quite a bit. If you insist on the technique you'll have more luck with HHG.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

And better results still with egg whites.

Cheers

Kim

I would be concerned about too much glue on the surface. Just thinking it might not allow your finish to wet out the wood and leave a blotchy appearance. I always hate it when you find glue on the surface of a wood working project after you start adding stain and or finish. Don't ask how I know.

Mark

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A world without music would Bb.

Any water you use to thin the glue will evaporate and shrink back into the pores. I spent a LOT of time looking into various filling techniques....including various glues. I ended up using Z-poxy as a filler, a thinned Z-poxy wash coat, and then nitrocellulose lacquer. I've used lots of epoxies but the Z-poxy sands nicer than any of them....and you can thin it with denatured alcohol which you can't do with some other epoxies.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Why not just lay down 2 spit coats of shellac and pore fill with pumice. Much more natural that way as you will get the pores filled with wood instead of having glue under the finish.

This is a hot topic , as filling is such a touchy subject . I think I tried many of them . It took me a long time to work my technique . I use pore o paq . I didn't like Z poxy but I know many of you do . this is one where you need to find the technique that works the best for your needs.
The white glue had its own problems . I tried CA at first it seemed ok but it dries so hard the lacquer had adhesion problems. I stopped using it .

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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 love these threads, so many ways folks find to fill pores.

I find it interesting that in a pore-fill topic you can get hide-glue vs titebond, and shellac vs epoxy, right along with your pore filling, and they will all more-or-less work.

I have my favorite: tinted silex filler, fortified with pumice. Sure, it is old school and shrinks some, but it has never gone weird on me.

I'd like to go back and study that egg-white method, does the search feature work around here?

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So far I've just used lacquer to pore fill. Works for me.

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Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

@ David. I have used egg white and I am pleased with the results.

viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=7556

I kinda like the french polish with pumice tradition in my limited experience (including once using flooring pore filler), but find it takes too long on really deeper pores. I'd be interested in doing an initial fill that shrinks a little and then use the pumice/shellac sanding technique perhaps.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

I hear ya, I just filled a small gap in my rosette with that method and I will NEVER do it again, looks aweful but I'm just gonna have to live with it. Typically I use stick shellac and I'm not crazy about that stuff either.

As for pore filling I just use my water base finish to fill pores, takes a bit longer but is at least consistent in appearance.

What's wrong with routing the rosette out and doing it again? Any impossibility?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

You're right Dave. Although there are always the hardest and the easiest ways…

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

This being my first double top experiment the guitar is for me and I can deal with the imperfection. It's finish is waiting to be polished out now so I'm way past the repair it stage. It most likely would have been fine with the stick shellac which I normally use but I wanted to try this method out. It seemed to be ok till I put the finish which now acts as a magnifying glass and really shows the error.

Live and learn.

I would be concerned with splotchyness (real word?),
as well.
If Padma was here, he might suggest using "bondo" as a filler.

I am currently about to deal with this issue myself. My rose went in nicely (it's just a single ring of culry redwood on sitka), however there is a very small gap that I thought about filling with glue and sawdust, but I'm glad I decided to hold off on that. It's not terrible and I could probably live with it if it was filled with a tranlucent filler like Zpoxy (this is my first build and it is for me) but I'm sure there is another way to get a better result. A bit of contrast with something dark would probably look nice, however inserting the thin wood at this point would probably be pretty difficult/frustrating. I am not a fan of plastics/synthetics.

Gaps in the rosette always look terrible, and there is no way to fill them invisibly. Normally, because the purfling lines are very thin, any discrepancy jumps at you right away. Again, no filler ever looks right, except on dark woods. At this stage, I would rout the rosette out, and redo it. Otherwise you will have to look at it on the finished guitar and wish you had done so.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Where is the gap - at an outer or inner edge of the rosette? Can you rout a thin slot and inlay an extra purfling line? I've done that once, seemed to work OK.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

What is the most traditional wood filler/method?