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Quick question: I've used System III epoxy on a few guitars now to pore fill and I like it except for the fact that it tends to darken the wood. So on a wood that can be on the dark side to start, such as macassar ebony, it ends up too dark for my taste. Can anyone tell me if the same thing happens with Z-poxy?

Thanks,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Pat buddy Z-Poxy finishing resin and West Systems epoxy will both darken the wood just like SIII.

Consider using which ever you wish and sanding back to the wood leaving the epoxy only in the pores. Now what you use as a seal coat is also going to darken the wood too - what's the plan here?

Also have you seen any of Andy Z's very cool Macassar guitars? There are lots of pics in the archives of how they look with an epoxy pore fill.

Thanks Hesh.

For a seal coat I was planning on ultra blond shellac. For finish, my next guitar will probably be Tru-oil with the top possibly French polished.

For pore filling, the thing I like the best, in terms of appearance, is the Oxford High Solids Filler. The reason I like it is because it is the clearest of what I've tried thus far. What I don't like about it is that it takes 6 - 8 applications to completely fill the pores (in rosewood). If you sand between applications, that ends up taking a lot of time. At the moment, I am experimenting on scrap to see if I can get away with not sanding between applications. If that works out, I could get pore filling using the Oxford stuff down to a couple of days which is equivalent to epoxy and acceptable to me.

Oh, the other methods of pore filling I"ve tried are CA (I won't do that again, I ended up with cold symptoms and my arms broke out in a rash from the fumes) and end grain saw dust with shellac. I'm not sure I gave the end grain saw dust and shellac method a fair try though as I only gave it one go before applying a finish and, sure enough, the pores were not filled all that well.

In summary, where I'm at now with pore filling opinion is: epoxy if you don't mind things getting a little darker and Oxford if you have the patience for many applications.

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Anything that wets the wood will darken the hue. I think that is a given. if the amber tint of the media is the issue system 3 is pretty clear but It still will give a wet hue to the wood.