Official Luthiers Forum!

.... linen is a spring fabric     I went to several fabric stores and couldn't find even a small piece of linen. I guess I'll have to stick with the old tee shirt material. Anybody here use anything else?

I have no problem finding Irish Linen here year round. Of course, I don't use it, so that explains that. Now if I actually needed the stuff, that would be a different matter.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

op shops are a good source of linen, and usually much cheaper than buying it new, and all the sizing has already been washed out for you..

of course you have to be seen shopping in the women's section.

Muslin works well also.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Michael - What is an "op shop?"

Don - If you don't use it, why are you looking for Irish Linen year round?

Dave - I'll give the muslin a shot.

Thanks guys.

I couldn't find any locally, so I ordered some on eBay, there's quite a bit available in varying quantities. I got five yards of it, should last me a long time. Seems like good quality stuff, I haven't used it yet. The eBay seller was fabricdepot.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

In my opinion worn Muslin is the best. worn Irish linin close second and WELL WORN t-shirt cotton a close third. Most new fabric will shead. So don't waist your money on new. find a high end motel housekeeping manager and ask for a disscarded sheet set. most us pure white muslin or linin

The linen I would look for would be a medium weave, not too high a thread count (as in very fine sheets) and not too open a weave (as in linen table napkins).

The reason why the openness of the fabric is important is that if it is too fine it will not release the shellac easily enough and will also tend to cake with pumice/rottenstone rather than absorb the pumice/rottenstone from the surface.

Too coarse a weave is not good as it will release too quickly and also tend to either leave lines or take away too much finish, depending on the pressure applied.

I echo what Michael has said about the nap of the fabric being worn...you do not want to leave or have imbedded fibers from the cloth. The longer you use a muneca the more broken in it will get and becomes easier to get better results from.

Thanks for the help, guys, and thanks to Shawn for the explaination about the weave. I found an old bed sheet and it works much better than the tee shirt that I had been using.