Hiding repairs

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TEETERFAN
Posts: 342
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2018 12:43 pm
Location: Kansas City, MO

Hiding repairs

Post by TEETERFAN »

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.
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Kevin Doty
Kansas City
jread
Posts: 560
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:52 am
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Re: Hiding repairs

Post by jread »

Wow. Nice one. Thanks for sharing
Diane Kauffmds
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Hiding repairs

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Very nice!
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
tippie53
Posts: 7011
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Hegins, Pa
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Re: Hiding repairs

Post by tippie53 »

well done
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
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