Dog Hair Finish?

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

I dont, but it seems to me you can get real close with experimentation. I would say the important part is to dye the wood and then isolate the porefiller from interacting with it. Like dye it, seal it, pore fill it and then seal it again. I’d also make sure to use porefiller colored with pigments rather than dyes, so it doesn’t bleed into the surrounding wood.

[Brian Boedigheimer BBmade]

It will depends on what you want to use for color. I’ve done this type of finish by dying the bare wood the main color I want for the guitar then applying a sealer and one light topcoat. Then I apply a dark paste wood filler, usually oil based or alkyd resin filler because it has a longer working time compared to water base fillers. I remove as much excess as I can by letting the filler flash, then using a squeegee and letting it flash a little longer. Then I use burlap to remove the haze of filler left behind. After it dries over night I lightly and carefully sand any remaining filler with 320 grit. One wrong move and you are through the thin topcoat and sealer and removing color. It is not easy and a person needs to be comfortable with a touch up brush.

An easier way is to seal, scuff and seal then apply a paste wood filler without using burlap. Sand the remaining filler the next day and reseal the guitar. When that dries, if the surface is nice and smooth, spray color on. Clear coat and finish the finish. The differences between the two techniques are subtle. Applying color to ribbon mahogany can look deeper when you apply to bare wood but I don’t know if it’s worth the pucker inducing process.

When I do filler before color I make the filler black. That looks pretty terrible on mahogany until you do the color. Then it looks amazing.

All of this for me is done with nitro lacquer.

[Dave Acoustics First]

Thank you both for these tips. If turns out well I will post results.