Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm curious after removing blood stains fairly successfully from a guitar with hydrogen peroxide.
Anyone here raise the grain on their tops or guitars generally, i.e. wipe or two with a damp cloth then sand back after drying?
Any finer points to it?
Anyone with specific objections to the process?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

FWIW I always do it. I never heard it was bad to do otherwise.

Yep. Damp cloth, let dry, final sand.

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

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i rub it down with pure alcohol. Don't think it's better than water except it evaporates in seconds and still raises the grain.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

I wet with water, then dry it with a hair dryer.
I learned the hard way that soft woods like spruce can end up with compressed fibers from power thickness sanding. That means that the scratches can still show under finish, even after being sanded smooth with finer sandpaper. Raising the grain and sanding lightly with 220 will eliminate them.
I also do the procedure before staining, since I use water soluble aniline most of the time.

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John

I've been doing it by brushing on egg whites and then sanding.

Wait- seriously?

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Mike Hoenerhoff
Elderly Instruments

Yes seriously. I also use egg whites to pore fill. It isn't that uncommon...