Hiding repairs
Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 11:22 am
Here’s how I touched up a little hole in my mahogany neck. My blank had a hole about 2mm in diameter. I first glued in a plug of mahogany made with the appropriate grain orientation. Of course, after staining, the repair was pretty visible. Here’s how I helped to hide it.
After sealing the neck with shellac and pore filling with shellac/pumice I level things out with 600 wet/dry and a drop or two of walnut oil. I wiped with naphtha and allowed things to dry.
To hide the defect, I painted “grain” with a bit of tinted white artist’s acrylic gesso. I mixed up a little watercolor paint to match the main color and added this to the white gesso, which whitens it and adds opacity. I used a tiny 000 artist’s sable brush to add teeny tiny strokes of paint. I lightened and darkened the color to give it a natural variety. I finally mixed a darker color to match the stained pores.
Using acrylic gesso diluted with water dries quickly and additional paint will not dissolve things underneath.
This needs a topcoat, which will be provided by my final nitro finish. To prevent the acrylic gesso from crawling from the solvents in the lacquer, I will mist on several thin layers of the lacquer with an airbrush to build a protective layer.
This technique helps to hide things but the painted grain doesn’t reflect light the same way the wood does. When viewed at certain angles it is a little more visible, so add just enough touchup paint to do the job. It is also more visible on lighter woods like spruce.
After sealing the neck with shellac and pore filling with shellac/pumice I level things out with 600 wet/dry and a drop or two of walnut oil. I wiped with naphtha and allowed things to dry.
To hide the defect, I painted “grain” with a bit of tinted white artist’s acrylic gesso. I mixed up a little watercolor paint to match the main color and added this to the white gesso, which whitens it and adds opacity. I used a tiny 000 artist’s sable brush to add teeny tiny strokes of paint. I lightened and darkened the color to give it a natural variety. I finally mixed a darker color to match the stained pores.
Using acrylic gesso diluted with water dries quickly and additional paint will not dissolve things underneath.
This needs a topcoat, which will be provided by my final nitro finish. To prevent the acrylic gesso from crawling from the solvents in the lacquer, I will mist on several thin layers of the lacquer with an airbrush to build a protective layer.
This technique helps to hide things but the painted grain doesn’t reflect light the same way the wood does. When viewed at certain angles it is a little more visible, so add just enough touchup paint to do the job. It is also more visible on lighter woods like spruce.