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I've got a piece of Spalted Maple that I'm planning on using as a headstock overlay.

This means that I need to route a shape into it to accept my logo (in Ebony)... and I need to take it down pretty thin to use as an overlay.

Do I need to do something to the Spalted Maple to make it more stable for thinning and handling the channel I need to route in it?

FYI - Joe White will be finishing the guitar when it is time.

Thanks!

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

It is a good idea to seal or even flood with CA to keep fom chipping out and keep thee dust down.

You've already cut it to shape so the hard part of keeping spaulted maple together is nearly over. Glue it on the headstock now. If you're worried at all, you can flood it with CA and sand back to the wood. Any voids in the spaulting will be well filled with CA and you shouldn't have any issues.

Do your inlay the same as you'd do on anything else.

One thing to always make sure of when working with spaulted woods, USE A RESPIRATOR WHEN SANDING!!! Nothing like rotting wood and microscoping mold spores to get one sick.

Nice looking guitar there Paul. That bubinga is really going to glow once Joe's finish is done.

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Thanks MDP & Rod.

Actually the headstock overlay is only rough shaped. It is about 3/8 to 1/2 oversized in places - but I've not had any problems with it so far. It DOES feel quite flexible.

Kyle thought it would be a good idea to do the logo inlay before we trim to the final shape - in fact he wishes I would have left it even bigger to give him a way to clamp it to the bench for routing the channel.


Do you have any idea if flooding with CA will change the color significantly? I do have some scraps so I guess I could give it a try.

Thin CA - right?

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

It will change the color the same as a sealer or finish would.

I would think shellac would be a better first coat sealer. CA tends to change the color too much and can't be sanded out. Shellac will not penetrate as much and then you could CA over the shellac if you wanted to. When final sanding I usually scrape the spalt too. The fine grits will embed the black from the black lines into the surrounding softer wood and it is a super pain to get out, if you even can.

The spalt looks great with the bubinga too. I did a rear overlay that looks very similar. I sealed with shellac and then tru-oil over that and it came out pretty good. The second shot (end graft) is where I used CA an you can see the darkened areas. I couldn't get it out. Different levels of deterioration in the wood will behave differently so none of this is true across the board.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Paul-
I don't know if you 'need' to do it, but I sometimes flood spalted wood with CA to 'harden it up' a bit before working it. Some of the softer ('punky') sections tend to tear out quite easily. Thinner epoxy (like straight WEST) would be another possibility if you have it on hand.
If you have porous sections in the spalted wood, they are real 'magnets' for sanding dust as well, and I find that sanding ebony gives that 'down in the coal mine' feeling to me.
Cheers
John