Acoustic Guitar Construction

It is for the first time I use Padouk. What color grainfiller do you advise?

Herman

BTW: Anyone here with expirience with Rustin's grainfiller?

I go with the clear fillers these days Zpoxy gets nice results. It would seem that Behlens Walnut oil base Pore O' Pac would be true to the natural dark pores. I think a few guys here have used Timbermate which is a water base product in several colors plus a neutral that can be tinted to suit, might consider that?

I too have used clear filler, epoxy mixed with silica. If you were to use any tinted, I would think a color similar to minwax Red Mahogany would look good, though you may have to try to match it to that color. The danger is that padauk will fade to a rich coffee brown over the years, and the pore tint needs to accommodate that. That's why I go with clear. I think it is fine if it is a brown wood that just gets darker, but something that goes from red to brown or purple to brown is difficult to color match pore fillers too.

Today the postman brought me a set of Z-poxy. That is what I'm about to use on the Padouk.
What's the best way to good results?
-Sand the filler down to the wood surface or
-Leave a thin layer of epoxy on the total surface?

I use multiple coats 2-3. I never try to sand down to wood as once you hit wood you will uncover more pores, but while sanding the first or even the second coat I do hit wood in areas because I find I am still doing a bit of leveling. The important thing is to level sand until there are no shinny spots. I finish up with a wiped on diluted (10% dilution with alcohol) coat to even (cover some of the sand troughs) things out.

When I am applying I try very hard to wipe off all of the epoxy with a scraper or squeegee. On the last instrument I ground down a thick (hardware store) straight edge razor blade and used it both to push the zpoxy into the pores and remove excess at the end. Not I ground off the entire edge so I really ended up with a scraper. I all rounded the corners.