Official Luthiers Forum!

Nice looking box James. I would not had thought that 120 proof was good enough for shellac.

My opinion of pore filling is that it is... well, just that. Filling pores. So once the pores are filled you always sand and or scrape back to wood. Your job is now complete, you have filled the pores. Now you can finish it.

I think the pumice poor fill gets a bad rap but when done right it is actually pretty effective. The way I see it is that if you visualize it as more of a sanding procedure or a harsh polishing it makes more sense. You are actually generating saw dust when you pumice fill. That is what pumice does, it tears up wood fibers and fills the pores with the shellac as the glue. You can even 'hear' it when you are doing it. IT sounds like an abrasive.

Pumice is actually volcanic glass, and fairly soft as abrasives go. It tends to chew itself up about as fast as anything else, so the longer you rub with it (without adding any new stuff) the finer it gets. It's also transparent, so that once it's been wet with finish it goes clear; snow to ice. All the color in the filler is from the dust, so it matches the wood, but a bit darker, which is fine. Once you know how to do it, pumice fill goes pretty fast; about as fast as sanding back a soft paste filler, and much faster than sanding back epoxy or CA. If you do it right, there's little or no sanding after the fill stage. IMO it's worth a bit of practice to get the hang of it.

Faster than CA though? CA is the fasted fill I have ever done. I squegie it on with a credit card then wipe flat with a paper towel. Then after about ten minutes sand back with 220 and do it again as necessary. Done in 30 minutes. And that was Wenge!

Has anyone tried using pumice with epoxy and applying it in a "French polish" fashion?
Is the super fine (4F) pumice what people are using for pore fill?

I've never used epoxy. But I use 2F pumice per Tom Bills' recommendation. I can't compare it to anything else, but according to Tom, it breaks down the fibers a little faster than the 4F and fills in the pores. I've only finished one guitar, but I'm really happy with the process and the finish.

Hmmm. I don't even know what grade the pumice is I have. I bought a huge bag of it from LMI in the 90's and it's still kicking

What brand and consistency of CA did you use?

I've never been able to sand back CA that fast. Besides, the fumes were pretty bad.

We’ll it’s nice packaging. Let’s give it a go!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk