Cosmetic fix to a Black Korina body

[Picard]

Hi everyone,

Novice woodworker questions, but thanks for your help.

I love the Black Korina body I am working on - 2 coats of Tung Oil on it so far.

#1. There is one cosmetic area that is bugging me a little- look at the below pict #1. Looks like Warmoth filled a naturally occuring 'hole' with a lighter colored wood. Is there any way to cosmetically hide this - some sort of colored wax that can be applied, or stain? If I could mess it up, I'll just leave it.

#2. This area I am just curious about - the areas noted in #2 just are lighter and don't seem to take the Tung Oil in the same way. Is the wood just denser in these areas?

FWIW, the below picture came out a little to red, the colors depicted are a bit off. Took the pict in the basement.

Thanks in advance.

Picard

 

[elfro89]

I see the colour difference but I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean. It looks like a perfectly normal piece of black korina to me, if your goal is to change the colour of just those areas then it would probably take a precise amount of precision and expertise with a stain, but then again its hard to tell exactly how something is going to turn out before hand which is why a finish is tested of a sample wood to see if it works. If you are not sure then I would leave well enough alone. It all looks fine to me, but then again Im not an expert.  ccasion14:

Could it be possible that maybe the wood was not clean on those areas, maybe some kind of oil or something stopped the tung oil for taking to the wood properly. Just a thought.

 

[OzziePete]

I'm not a finishing expert, have never finished my own guitar - save for one punk example that solicicted all sorts of abuse, lol.

However, unless you had done a close up of the body and highlighted the shades of variation, I would probably not have noticed it.

Obviously, because you have been so involved working on that body, you would notice any unexpected variation to the shade of the wood after each staining and coat, but many others would not even see it.

I notice that there is some significant streaking of the wood to the right in that picture, if it is still the same piece of wood in that section of the body (bodies can be multiple pieces of wood put together). That might have caused some compression of the wood in the areas that are not taking in the oil (to the left of those streaks) so well and are ending up lightly shaded compared to the rest. So it may well be a natural occurrence in the wood. Maybe someone with good wood working experience with woods like Korina could offer more expert advice, as I am speculating this is what might have happened.....

I think many of us could pick out various 'faults' with guitars we have assembled... I know I can look at the Warmoths I have done and recall some difficult installation of a tuner that wasn't perfect or the minor issues lurking underneath an otherwise perfect looking pickguard.....I guess it comes with the territory of doing the work yourself and noticing that work done hasn't been done to your complete satisfaction. Sometimes, and I guess with natural products like wood bodies, perfection is simply not possible.

Those variations could easily be due to the variation in the wood, not a wood repair. If anyone asks just tell them that was the variation of the wood grain, though I doubt anyone would notice unless you start picking out the 'faults' to them.

I also think once you start putting the hardware on the body and install the neck, the shading variations in the body will be less obvious.

 

[Cagey]

Leave it. As Aussie said, if you hadn't pointed the "flaws" (assuming that's what they are) out, nobody would have seen them. Besides, now that there's oil on it, you're pretty much committed unless you want to try stripping and sanding it, then starting over. Anything less is going to result in a repair that's more obvious than the flaws it's intended to correct.

 

[Picard]

#2 was just curiosity on  my part- from your replies and my sense, the wood is just denser in these areas. Again, just curious, nothing to fix.

#1 I was speaking to that perfectly circular white dot of filler wood  :icon_scratch: . If I wanted to hide just that white dot, how would a person do it? A drop of stain I would guess, some sort of colored waxy crayon?  Ideas?

I am assuming, but don't know that #1 was appropriately filled by a Warmoth wood worker/craftsman and is not naturally occurring. Just don't know.

No obsession on perfection here laughing7: 'do I contradict myself?'  :laughing7 - I want the bass body to look like it washed up on a lake shoreline, straight from nature. But that #1 one white dot of filler wood  :icon_scratch: is bugging me.

Thanks for your help mates, appreciate any further replies.

Picard

 

[AutoBat]

With the craziness of the colours in Korina, it looks natural to me.
In the photo provided it looks consistent.

 

[Hbom]

Gotta agree that #2 looks fine & should be left alone.
#1, that's a toss-up. If you can't live with it you might try 1 of these.
They work fine for some fixes.
As always, use a test strip 1st.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Repair_and_touchup/ColorTone_Touchup_Markers.html

 

[Picard]

Thanks hbom.   That looks like the sort of item I was envisioning.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Repair_and_touchup/ColorTone_Touchup_Markers.html