My First Guitar-OM Blog

[johnnparchem]

Looks like you have a great looking guitar.

[Diane Kauffmds]

The end is in sight (I think).

After cleaning it up the box and sanding the neck, I'm starting to pore fill today. I've decided to use shellac. I'm going to put on 4-5 coats of shellac, then I'll scrape her down. I expect to have to do this at least 2 times. The Peruvian Walnut has very large pores to fill. We have a wind advisory, so the humidity is dropping like a stone today. The shellac is drying quickly.

I've spent the better part of the week adjusting the dovetail. For some odd reason, the dovetail was very loose. I could (literally) drop the tenon into the mortise with wiggle room to spare. Before I could do any geometric adjustments, I had to build up the dovetail on the neck. I ended up using my plane to shave off a lot of shavings from a spare piece of wood, to glue onto the tenon (mental note: keep all shavings!). I had to add 1/16" to both sides of the tenon. I finally got a really good bite and got it adjusted in all 3 dimensions. It wasn't difficult to adjust the dovetail, just time consuming, since I've never done it.

So far, at least for me, the binding was the hardest part of building the guitar.

While waiting for the shellac to dry, between coats today, I sanded the sides of the fretboard to the shape of the neck, and I fretted the board. I look like a chimney sweep again.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Here is a closeup of the pore filling progress. This is how the wood looked after 5 coats of shellac (1# cut), and scraping. I'm in the process of doing this a second time. You can see the shiny shellac in the pores. Hopefully, after another 5 coats and scraping, the pores will be filled.

[johnnparchem]

I would be afraid that shellac is so thin that it would takes a lot of coats, many more than 10, to fill pores that deep especially with a 1 pound cut. Also if I did fill the pores I would be afraid that shellac that thick would shrink over the next few months exposing the pores again. I have used shellac with pumice to fill rosewood with great success as part of a traditional French polish finish.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I would be afraid that shellac is so thin that it would takes a lot of coats, many more than 10, to fill pores that deep especially with a 1 pound cut. Also if I did fill the pores I would be afraid that shellac that thick would shrink over the next few months exposing the pores again. I have used shellac with pumice to fill rosewood with great success as part of a traditional French polish finish.

A local luthier uses this process and has had great success. I checked online and found several references to this technique. Time will tell.
You aren't wrong about the crazing. Here is the process that I'm trying.
http://www.stansellguitars.com/construc ... lac-finish

[Diane Kauffmds]

Here are videos on the technique.
BTW, it's a 3# cut, not a 1#. sorry about the confusion. Also, I'm using a brush, not a sponge brush. The layers that I put on are a lot thinner.
I do not use an electric sander. I use a cabinet scraper and sanding block.

[johnnparchem]

I did not mention in my last post that your guitar and fret board look really good,

I liked the shellac application method in the video and write up. I an not sure I am as trusting of six gun for the pore fill, but as you say time will tell. The nice thing about shellac is that you can just keep working with it until you achieve the results you want. I am glad you are using a block and scrapers, I am not sure how six gun keeps the back level sanding with a piece of sand paper in his palm.

I have seen pore fill applications where shellac is put on thick like in the video and it is sanded while wet to put a mixture of shellac and sanding dust in the pores. But I can understand the desire to get a clearer darker looking fill in the pores that you could achieve shellac only. As I mentioned my fear still is shellac only in the pores will continue to shrink for a month or so; the pores might start showing again. I am not an expert by any means.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I did not mention in my last post that your guitar and fret board look really good,

I liked the shellac application method in the video and write up. I an not sure I am as trusting of six gun for the pore fill, but as you say time will tell. The nice thing about shellac is that you can just keep working with it until you achieve the results you want. I am glad you are using a block and scrapers, I am not sure how six gun keeps the back level sanding with a piece of sand paper in his palm.

I have seen pore fill applications where shellac is put on thick like in the video and it is sanded while wet to put a mixture of shellac and sanding dust in the pores. But I can understand the desire to get a clearer darker looking fill in the pores that you could achieve shellac only. As I mentioned my fear still is shellac only in the pores will continue to shrink for a month or so; the pores might start showing again. I am not an expert by any means.

You may be right John. The saving grace, as you said, is that the shellac is always workable. Unlike other finishes, shellac can always be corrected. I thought I'd give it a try. My friend has had really good results from this method. I'll keep everyone up to date on what happens.

[MaineGeezer]

I expect it will be fine, assuming you're using good shellac and letting it dry sufficiently.

I will be using shellac as well, so I'm eager to see how it comes out. Carter is set up to spray nitrocellulose, but I know my limitations with a spray gun! Shellac I can handle. Carter would undoubtedly spray it for me, but then I'm not doing it myself. I've had decent success with French polishing, and I keep experimenting with it to develop my technique before the time comes to do the guitar.

My back and sides are black walnut, so I'll have the pore-filling problem too.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I expect it will be fine, assuming you're using good shellac and letting it dry sufficiently.

I will be using shellac as well, so I'm eager to see how it comes out. Carter is set up to spray nitrocellulose, but I know my limitations with a spray gun! Shellac I can handle. Carter would undoubtedly spray it for me, but then I'm not doing it myself. I've had decent success with French polishing, and I keep experimenting with it to develop my technique before the time comes to do the guitar.

My back and sides are black walnut, so I'll have the pore-filling problem too.

I bought my shellac from Woodcrafter; It's called BTC Tiger Flakes, which is dewaxed. I opted for Blond.

I understand what you're saying about spraying the finish. It's not something I would try either. Although my husband always offers to help me, I don't accept either, because it would mean that I'm not doing it myself. Part of this entire project is to push my limits beyond what someone might expect. At the same time, limits do exist and I would really like to have a useable guitar. LOL

The pores on my Peruvian Walnut are huge; I wonder if all walnut has the same size pores, or if it differs with species.

BTW, after putting the shellac on the walnut, it took on the eye-popping 3D affect that I had hoped it would. It also has a waterfall figure that's gold, that moves and flows right over the grain figure. It looks better than I ever expected.