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Sorry to hear of your frustration Dave, in fact it drove me out to the shed to do a rush job to see for myself what's going on.

I started by selecting what I assume is some Kaya or African Mahogany that I think may have come to me as packing wood in one of my many orders of most excellent tonewoods from Steve Roberson at Colonial Tonewoods. Anyhow it has big pores so was a prime candidate.



I sanded this orphan side thru 320 grit in prep for filling. I then separated the egg into a bowl and mixed lightly with a folk to combine the gooey egg white with the stuff that resembles a smashed jellyfish.




I then took some 240grit wet and dry, fitted it to a sanding block. Dipping the 240grit into the egg white I began working an area of about 4" along the board into a slurry, I dipped and worked the next 4" then dipped and reworked the 8" area now wet with egg slurry. As I felt the original 4" had enough slurry built up, I moved onto a third 4" before the first became too sticky and I blended this third area back into the second as I had with the first, dip and work, dip and work, being careful not to let things get too dry.

Here is a shot of the still wet slurry just after initial application.



And here is a shot showing some of the slurry that had built up at the end of the board which I wiped onto my finger. Behind my finger you can see the swirls of slurry on the right of screen indicating where I had work to, and the absence of same where I had stopped for this experiment.



At this stage I let things dry out over night (I would leave it longer if I was doing a guitar to give best chance to avoid sink back.) and then carefully sanded back the next morning working 'with' the grain to 320grit. I then applied some shellac to better show any pores both on the treated and untreated surfaces. I found that quite a few pores where still not filled, so I lightly sanded the shellac once dry, and reapplied the egg whites making another slurry. This 'slurry making' does not take very much effort, just dip and work steady with moderate pressure allowing the abrasive to do it's job.

When I was happy with the coverage of the slurry on each section I moved up the board to the next just as before and then blended back being careful to keep thing quite wet. I allowed this second application to dry and sanded back again with the grain down to 360grit and then applied 1 only coat (this IS just an experiment) of Truoil to both the filled and unfilled sample areas of the board. The following are images of the result of this quick test.

Here's the complete board, both treated and untreated. An area of slurry swirl can be seen around the middle. This was purposely left unsanded to create a clear delineation between the two areas. You may also notice some swirl still visible at the top edge of the treated area, I only wanted to test the method so was not overly careful to clean up the entire work area. For the purpose of this experiment, this is good enough. The red arrow is pointing to an area of the untreated board where I had wiped the slurry from my finger that I showed in the above image.



This next image is a close up of the untreated area, just shellac and Trueoil here.



This next image is a close up of the treated area.



And this next of the same treated area taken from a bit further back (wish I had a better camera )



I don't know how well these images demonstrate this, but after seeing the board first hand, my verdict is that egg whites seem to make a very good grain filler. I think with more care applied to process than I had afforded this exercise, great results can be had.

Hope this helps anyone still having problems.

Cheers

Kim

You've got it Kim, the process works fine if care is taken. The main thing is not to over work, or use too much pressure. Like most pleasurable things in life, take it slow and easy, and the results are better.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Great job Kim and this looks like an impressive alternative since your results look fantastic. It seems to impart a nice color to the wood too, very natural and complimentary to finishes.

I dont have anything to add exept that i have been watching this thread with interest, and i will give it a try soon. Thanks guys.

I am totally happy with the results i get with z-poxy, but working with that stuff, you just know that it was manufactured in hell, out of the most evil of ingredients. Kim, your story has me scared, and a nice looking guitar is not worth turning my skin inside out for.

Those latest pictures look great!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Thanks for taking the time to do that Kim, it really clarified a few things for me. I'm going to try this on walnut as soon as the guitar is ready. If I can get it to work on walnut it will probably work on just about anything.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That looks great, Kim. Very methodical process. Thanks for sharing.

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-Clint Beacock

Great visual, Kim. I believe I'll be using that on the two in process, when I get there.4 Egg white is certainly a useful product. Seals purflings from bleeding rosewood, acts as a size for tops, and can be used for pore filling, and in a pinch, I suppose, as a final finish, if you choose to really go "Old World".

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Excellent post Kim.

Before Colin chipped in, i was thinking that there might be some use in doing the credit card squeegee thing. Colin, care to expand upon why too much pressure is a bad thing? Someone else had the experience of pulling the slurry out - not sure if that's the reason or something else?

I am now wondering if in addition to the egg slurry we can replace true oil finishing with a nice hand rubbed slab of bacon.

Kim,
Thanks for posting those pics. I've been following the exact some process, so this confirms my suspicions that I'm sanding back too aggressively.
Best,

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George :-)

Rob, I first tried to press the egg in with a credit card squeegee. It didn't work at all for me. I think I just ended up bridging the pores which caused me a lot of grief.

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-Clint Beacock

Thanks Colin,

As usual your advice followed with due care has proven to be a great help. Between your in put on this topic, and that of Allen McFarlen over at the ANZLF, many of us have been given a much easier path to follow than otherwise would have been the case. Thanks also to everyone else who has helped this thread move along by offering valuable input, encouragement, and kind comments.

I guess it comes down to the simple fact that each method will have a learning curve and by sharing as we did in this thread, it helps straighten that curve out a little. I still fully expect to encounter a few problems along the way with this method once I start applying it to guitar building. However I also expect that further experience gained through trial and error will soon see those problems over come.

I think in the future as we each live and learn about this process, that it would be great if any of us who stumble across any 'ah ha' moments could make a point of sharing their discovery with the rest of us even if they need to start a new thread to do so.

Thank you once again everyone.

Cheers

Kim

Good discussion and timely. I'll be ready to pore fill next week and I have only used oil and water based paste fillers in the past. I was thinking of trying the epoxy fill but I just really hate the idea of using that stuff and have had some interest in trying this process. I get enough fumes from CA and Lacquer for my taste. I'm thinking also about FP too.
Do the egg whites have to be fresh from the shell or will the egg whites in a carton used for baking work? I see them next to the NoYoaks at the supermarket. I hate to waste all the yoaks. Also if I decide to give the FP a go would it be worth it to do the EW over the pumice. It's my understanding that the pumice actually sands the wood fibers that fill the pores just like the the sand paper sand the wood in the EW method.

Chris, for no particular reason, other than my own short tradition, I use egg white/slurry pore filling when I'm going to use an oil based finish and pumice filling when I'm going to French polish. No need to do both on the one instrument, though I always use egg white as a size on my soundboard on all my instruments. I have used epoxy, but prefer these methods.

I wouldn't use the processed egg whites, you only need the white from one large egg for a session, so just take two eggs, separate the yolk from one, use the egg white for your pore filling and add the yolk to the other one and fry it, bit like having a double yolk egg!

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Oh! The cholesterol!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

And fried too! But I guess yoaks aren't as bad as yolks when it comes to cholesterol.

Gives a whole new meaning to the "Yoak is on you!"

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I'd suggest an omelette, with caramelized onions, garlic, bok choy, and Gorgonzola cheese. Yum!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Since egg white it is an organic material, I suppose one can glue another piece of wood on top of it

This has been a most excellent thread. I just got finished reading through its entirety.

I honestly think after seeing Kim's practice pictures that I will be switching to egg white to fill pores from now on.

It's the least expensive and a very simple method. And safe too which is something we all need to keep in focus.

Great work everyone.

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