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Am I understanding correctly that you would not want to use Z-Poxy on the Top? I know that the top doesn't have the open pores to fill, but it seems that somewhere (unless I just dreamt it up), that people Z-Poxy the top as well...

Snood, thanks for starting this post. I'm about to start FPing my first as well, so this is a great read!

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

You do not need to pore fill the top as sitka does not have open pores.
I am not sure why some do i guess some will say it adds tone others will say not............a very dark and murky area IMHO
I will not be using a pore filler on my top BTW

I am probably going to do
z-poxy back and sides
shellac on the top (one or two coats but not FP)
Then tru-oil all over
I like the satin finish way better than the gloss anyway.........too much IMHO but obviously a lot of people really like it.

Hey these are our 1st attempts so its ok to experiment i guess


Barry

Wow! I have not posted on this topic in a while and when I do it is typically on French polishing issues. However many have already stated my process for FP with Zpoxy fill. So what I will say now pertains to Zpoxy fill and sprayed finishes.

Like many of the others have said I fill via Zpoxy, sand back to the wood leaving on the pores filled. I then wipe a 60/40 mix Zpoxy/ DA on with lint free pad to even coloration. I allow this to cure and level just ever so lightly with 400p. This is more a tooth than leveling. Then I spray a 1.5# cut of shellac as a sealer for the whole guitar. Less the fb of course. I allow this thin seal coat to cure over night the repeat. This ins my seal process for all my sprayed finishes.


As usual many are scared of epoxy and shellac combination. If the shellac is over the epoxy there will be no issue. However if you put epoxy over shellac the epoxy till flake off. Shellac will adhere to near any thing but epoxy will not adhere to shellac well at all.

[QUOTE=snood]
I am probably going to do
z-poxy back and sides
shellac on the top (one or two coats but not FP)
Then tru-oil all over
Barry[/QUOTE]

Not the best course of action, IMO. Tru-oil is not a varnish per se. There is no resin in it. It is only linseed oil that is subjected to heat and partially polymerized in the process. I got this directly from a chemist at Birchwood Casey, who make the stuff.
So, if you want to use Tru-oil for the back, sides and neck, use Tru-oil and nothing else. It will darken rosewood to the point of muddiness however. Behlen's waterbased fillers work great with Tru-oil and help you get a level finish much faster than Tru-oil alone. The light color of the Behlen filler is darkened considerably by subsequent coats of Tru-oil. Oil is used in fresco and gesso techniques to "kill" the dry color, which makes it deeper and darker. Oil does the same thing to wood, which in lighter color woods can be attractive, but in darker woods can be fairly ugly.
So, if you want to use Z-poxy as a filler on the body, then topcoat it with a varnish like Rockhard, a solvent or waterbased lacquer, or shellac. Tru-oil is not meant to be a topcoat over a different substrate.

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

[QUOTE=TRein] [QUOTE=snood]
I am probably going to do
z-poxy back and sides
shellac on the top (one or two coats but not FP)
Then tru-oil all over
Barry[/QUOTE]

Not the best course of action, IMO. Tru-oil is not a varnish per se. There is no resin in it. It is only linseed oil that is subjected to heat and partially polymerized in the process. I got this directly from a chemist at Birchwood Casey, who make the stuff.
So, if you want to use Tru-oil for the back, sides and neck, use Tru-oil and nothing else. It will darken rosewood to the point of muddiness however. Behlen's waterbased fillers work great with Tru-oil and help you get a level finish much faster than Tru-oil alone. The light color of the Behlen filler is darkened considerably by subsequent coats of Tru-oil. [/QUOTE]

Thomas,

You mean dark like this?



That's Tru-oil on Braz Rosewood that has been on the guitar for three and half years.

I have done many guitars with a shellac (FP) finish topped off with Tru-oil coats and these have worked fine. As Michael says, shellac goes on Z-poxy and from my experience Tru-oil goes on shellac fine.

I haven't done Tru-oil over Z-poxy for b/s but I have for a neck on my most recent guitar and this is working just fine so I don't think this will be a problem for Barry. As Todd says Barry can test it out on scrap first. Or perhaps FP the b/s as well before applying the Tru-oil.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave,
Well, the proof is in the puddin' and it looks like you are using Tru-Oil as a topcoat over a dis-similar sealer with no problems. I guess I stand corrected. It still does not make sense to me, but that's nothing new.

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large