OP
OP
sequoia
Well-known member
Another good recovery... It actually looks like you meant to do it that way.
My Worst Oopsie
- Thread starter sequoia
- Start date
My worst was when I was just getting ready to start French Polishing...yah you know...after all that meticulous sanding and prepping....
Anyway, I bumped a metal ruler I had hanging above my bench and it fell onto the spruce top....Corner first! left a definite triangle indentation that was at least half the thickness of the top deep. As you can imagine sweat burst out my forehead, and the heart was pumping while my stomach churned and grumbled.....But rather than loose my head and throw it across the room I thought...well there has to be a way to fix it....
Looked around them interwebs....read articles by the likes of Frank Ford on steaming out dents and the like....tried them and nothing of course as this was not a dent it was a puncture that just did not go all the way through....
Long story short....I decided I would go through my scrap from that top and find a place where the grain was a good match....made some practice slices with a razor. Made a practice piece by dropping the ruler in the same way. Filled the test piece and it looked pretty good. So I did the same on the instrument that was originally accosted by the ruler and I could barley see it.
The fix was so good that I brought it to 4 different sets of eyes. All makers of various sorts....told them what they were looking for and told them approximately where it was and they could not see it.....After about a month or so after I had been playing it I remembered about that moment and went looking for it and I could not find it....
Moral of the story....keep cool and calm...make a plan...test it out and do your best to get it fixed. Oh and don't hang metal objects above your workbench...The shop got a reorganization as that was NOT going to happen again....I hope.
Anyway, I bumped a metal ruler I had hanging above my bench and it fell onto the spruce top....Corner first! left a definite triangle indentation that was at least half the thickness of the top deep. As you can imagine sweat burst out my forehead, and the heart was pumping while my stomach churned and grumbled.....But rather than loose my head and throw it across the room I thought...well there has to be a way to fix it....
Looked around them interwebs....read articles by the likes of Frank Ford on steaming out dents and the like....tried them and nothing of course as this was not a dent it was a puncture that just did not go all the way through....
Long story short....I decided I would go through my scrap from that top and find a place where the grain was a good match....made some practice slices with a razor. Made a practice piece by dropping the ruler in the same way. Filled the test piece and it looked pretty good. So I did the same on the instrument that was originally accosted by the ruler and I could barley see it.
The fix was so good that I brought it to 4 different sets of eyes. All makers of various sorts....told them what they were looking for and told them approximately where it was and they could not see it.....After about a month or so after I had been playing it I remembered about that moment and went looking for it and I could not find it....
Moral of the story....keep cool and calm...make a plan...test it out and do your best to get it fixed. Oh and don't hang metal objects above your workbench...The shop got a reorganization as that was NOT going to happen again....I hope.
OP
OP
sequoia
Well-known member
I totally know the feeling. Then the thought comes into your head, well maybe it isn't as bad as it looks and then you realize, yes, it is very bad.
Here is a story of how these things can lead to new break throughs and good things. A local luthier I knew built high end custom flamenco guitars with Cyprus tops. Very expensive. Anyway, he built one for a customer who was driving from Denver to California to pick it up. He said come on out, I'm just putting the finishing touches on it and it will be ready by the time you get here. The finish was a shellac French polish and as he was putting on the last coat, his thumbnail (which was sharpened for Flamenco playing) gouged into the top just below the bridge and made an unholy gash.
Nothing for it but a strip and re-sand to fix it which he did. Then he remembered that mixing two volatile substances together causes the flash time to drastically be reduced by a factor of 10 so he mixed alcohol with acetone for his shellac mixture and proceeded to do a "French polish" in a fraction of the time and thus the "California polish" was invented. Working through the night and all the next day he was able to finish the finish just as the customer pulled up in his driveway. True, the finish was a bit tender but he used fans and UV to harden it up. The customer never knew.
Similar threads
