Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone have any experience with hot hide glue pore filling, especially under a EM6000? I don't think I'll have any issues as my standard finishing procedure always starts by spraying a 1lb cut of shellac with tint (for whatever color or sunburst I want) and then a 2lb cut sealer coat. Still, I thought I'd ask.

Generally, I'm just curious about using HHG for pore filling anyhow. It seems so user friendly and easy to work with I'm having trouble understanding what disadvantage there would be. This is on Khaya and honduran mahogany.

Thanks for any insight.

HHG shrinks, and it shrinks a lot. In that sense it's hardly the best 'filler' for pores. Used as the binder and mixed with a filler (sawdust?) and it's suitability improves. Better yet is to use Fish glue and sawdust as it gives you more time to remove the excess. It will still require 2 or 3 applications but it is user friendly. Just make sure that you are happy with the colour match. As a general rule, pore filler should be darker than the colour of the timber. Easy to do a quick test on an off cut.

Using water borne finish over HHG just does not seem right to me. Have never used either for this purpose but would do a test run if it was me. Good luck.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

There's all kinds of commercially available pore fillers that will fill quicker and shrink less than glue. Crystalac, Timbermate, Pore o Pac, epoxy, ect.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I understand that its a well known property of HHG to shrink and 'self clamp' as it dries, but imagine if you left it to dry properly over a few days or perhaps even a week or more before sanding back, that it would not shrink back more than anything else if used to fill pores. Then again I would also imagine the ambient RH would have a lot to do with that and like glue up, you would want to make sure the air remained at the lower end of the hygrometer at least until you got a few coats of finish on. That said I have never used HHG as a pore filler to know so its just conjecture...If the idea is to use only traditional 'natural' products, perhaps you should investigate the egg white slurry method...its age old and, it still works even today, but then the effects of RH remains an important consideration there also....bloody wood pores, why can't they fill them stink'in selves??

Cheers

Kim