Official Luthiers Forum!

Drywall compound as easy to dye pore filler

Dry Spackle for pore filling when french polishing

-jd

Paper towels, razor blades, glitter.

Pat

?? for lutherie ?? how does that work ??

Distilled (or demineralized => cheaper than distilled) water for water stones will never be wrong, but it isn't mandatory either. Where I live, tap water is really "chalky", it contains a lot of dissolved chalk. For example, if I will boil water for 3 minutes in a perfectly clean pot will turn pretty white inside (easy to clean, but just imagine that much dissolved minerals...) When water stones dry the dissolved chalk will cristalize inside the stone and never get out there. One bad day it may crack because there will not be more "spare space" for chalk... For me, pure tap water is an absolute no-go, but distilled or even demineralized water (the stuff you use to fill up your car battery) would easily multiply the costs of my water stones (aprox. 1.- $ per "sharpening day" ), so this filter we use here for our coffee machines etc. is a great money saver for me. But even distilled water would be cheaper than buying every few months a new sharpening stone set If you get your mineral water only bottled from the store and not like me from the tap I guess you can just use tap water - if it isn't contaminated with bacteria and/or chlorine.

Thats funny but if your going to tell people your using the bags I would say it is because you want to save the environment. Now I am going to follow your lead and start saving bags, to save the enviroment. of course.

How does it hold up to the finishes ? How does it hold up under use ?

I just found out that those little household sponges actually have two uses:
1) The soft side is a nice tool to even out alcohol thinned Epoxy pore filler.
2) The rough side is ideal for getting rid of any shiny spots in the dried Z-Poxy. It leaves you with a very smooth silk-mat surface. I would say that the roughness is somewhere between 400 grit sandpaper and steelwool.
And a 10 pack will set you back around $ 1.00

Great thread.

With all due respect, I'd like to question the use of the rough side of a sponge pad to get rid of the shiny spots in dried Z-poxy. I'm not sure that this is actually doing anything. The shiny spots indicate pores that are not yet filled, i.e. the surface is not yet level. When you remove the shiny spots with something so flexible like the pad (or steel wool) you aren't leveling so what are you doing? I think basically you are leaving pits that have a dull surface.

Regards,
Pat

Ok Pat, I'll bite..........glitter?

I almost hate to let you all know how cheap I am.
I use the bag that my cereal comes in for wax paper.