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Finishing Indian Laurel with Enduro-Var.
Sprayed a seal coat of EV over epoxy pore fill and found these "eruptions" in the sides. They follow the grain, and appear in bookedmatched places on the sides.
Sanded level, sprayed with further 3 coats EV , and found as pictured after drying but not levelled.
Not as much as before, but still not good.
Could these be small pitch or resin pockets as I suspect?
Any suggestions of how to treat them/seal them off? (I would prefer not to use shellac if possible)

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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.

How absolutely odd. Looks terrible. Wish I had an answer for you.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

They are not all over the sides, only on a couple of places each side.

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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.

Are they located where you can see the inside surface where those spots are. Anything funky happening on the inside like being concave/sunken?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Difficult to be sure, but there was a split in the sides at or near where the longer area is, which was filled with CA before bending.

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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.

Could the epoxy grain fill have had some bubbles that were sanded through, allowing the WB EnduroVar to reach the wood, causing some grain raising?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I suppose anything is possible, I believe I only raised the grain on the top during prep.
It's getting some thin CA before levelling this time, see how it goes.

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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.

Looks like the natural oils welling up through the finish. Especially since you say it appears as a book-match on the other piece. While not as oily and problematic as CocoboloIndian Laurel does is a somewhat oily wood. Water based finishes seem to be more sensitive to this but these oils will cause problems in all types of finishes....

An isolation coat would have prevented this. I would keep filing with EV at this point....

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks.
Didn't know this, and there was no indications of oilyness when working the wood and I've had no problems with edges of FBs with EIR and ABW, both oily woods I believe.
Any recommendations for an isolating coat I might find in UK?

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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.

A quick and cheap iso coat is thin CA. Wipe on a coat and it will lock down the oils. Beware the fumes though as they can be quite wicked when having that much CA off gassing....

Vinyl sealer can be used as well, apply two coats. Cut the first coat with 25% fast evap thinner. The lab guys all recommend this but I have had problems with it on the oiliest woods like Cocobolo

Not sure of what all is available on your side of the pond but Cardinal, ICA, Sherwin Williams all have isolators in their products catalog.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/