Black Grainfiller On Dark Wood?

[mattharris75]

I was doing some test finishing for my wood pickup cover i'm making and put some black stain on walnut and then sanded it back before applying a tru-oil finish. I really liked the way it looked. It appeared as if the black was only left in the pores of the walnut, similar to grainfiller. But this was only on a small piece of wood, not a large enough area to get a good idea of what it would look like on a guitar body. Plus I would like to actually fill the pores in the body to give it a smoother appearance.

Has anybody tried a commercial black grainfiller on a darker wood like walnut? And if so do you have any pictures? I'd love to get a better idea of what this might really look like before investing in a can of black grainfiller.

[mattharris75]

So nobody has any familiarity with doing this I take it?

[Daniel Sorbera]

I've used black grainfiller on wenge, but thats a pretty darn black wood already.

[mattharris75]

Yeah, I was thinking more walnut than wenge. Is that the wenge guitar on your website you're referring to? If so i'll take a look at that, it's better than nothing anyway. Any opinions on how this might look?

Also, what was the finishing procedure on that wenge guitar? It's obviously very low gloss. Is it just grainfilled and sanded smooth, or is there some light oiling going on?

Edited June 8, 2007 by mattharris75

[Daniel Sorbera]

Yeah, I was thinking more walnut than wenge. Is that the wenge guitar on your website you're referring to? If so i'll take a look at that, it's better than nothing anyway. Any opinions on how this might look?

Also, what was the finishing procedure on that wenge guitar? It's obviously very low gloss. Is it just grainfilled and sanded smooth, or is there some light oiling going on?

Which one are you referring to? The one with a flame maple cap is grainfilled and shot with satin clear. The solid one is oil finished, not grain filled at all.

[mattharris75]

Sorry, I was referring to the solid one, but thanks for the info.

[mattharris75]

I've decided that rather than testing out a black grainfiller i'll prep a board of walnut, with both some heartwood and sapwood for the full color variation. Then i'll stain it black and sand back so it's only in the pores, then use the clear grainfiller I have. Then i'll tru oil on top of that and see how it turns out!