Official Luthiers Forum!

I bent some maple sides, and obviously the temp was too high. I use a slat/blanket/slat/kraft paper/tin foil/slat sandwich. I also used Super soft. What I found odd was that the scorch was on the outside of the rim, the side that is away from the heat blanket.

Anyway, I sprayed it with a bleach solution, which seemed to remove most of it - don't know if that will cause any future problems or not.

Anyone have any cures for a scorch after the fact?

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John Ressler

I think your in for some sanding, John.

Steve

The bleach shouldn't cause any future problems.Some pictures would help on the amount of burning,but if it's not too bad,it should sand out in the finish sanding anyway.I get burn on maple alot when running through the drum sander alot.Maple is prone to burning mor than most woods anyway.It always sands back out for me.

Wood bleach (Oxalic acid) or clothes bleach (chlorine)? Long term chlorine bleach can break down the lignin in the wood and make the wood weaker. That's how it whitens cheap wood pulp based paper, washes some of the lignin out. If you bleached it with chlorine bleach, I'd wash it off with some water and vinegar, then just water. Work with really good ventilation. That'll neutralize it. Won't need a lot of washing, not like soaked, but equal to what you put on it bleach wise. I've seen the break down of the wood craze the surface of the finish after a number of years. I did some work with bleached birch and it got funky five or so years down the line and needed to be stripped and refinished.