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I am about to refinish a BRW guitar with white/red/white side purfs. I had terrible staining during pore fill last time. I usually blow off the guitar thoroughly, then pore fill with z-poxy. I haven't had much problem with staining in the past, but with this guitar I can't seem to avoid it. How can I protect the purfling from staining during pore fill? Do I need to wipe the guitar down with naptha first, or just blow it off better? Thanks.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
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http://ensorguitars.com

Seal them....

Anything in particular I souls use to seal them? Lacquer, sealer, pore fill, bubble gum?

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

This is a great question. I've been waiting to see some more input since I struggle with keeping my holly purfling really white during filling and finishing rosewood.

What I've been doing is sealing the rosewood with egg white (this really helps to keep the color from the rosewood running all over), cleaning up the pufling with 320 sandpaper, then sealing just the purling with a vinyl sealer (lacquer based). Since I'm French polishing, I then apply a coat or two of shellac, fill with micro bead filler, finish the filling with shellac and pumice, then clean up the purling again. It seem to me, the trick is to get the purfling really clean and sealed with something that won't make the rosewood leach color into the purfling and then you can go back and clean up the film left over by the colored filler.

I seal before filling with a couple of thinned coats of lacquer or vinyl sealer. Makes pore filling much easier too.

I seal them with shellac. Just get a small art brush and a steady hand to coat them