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Dealing with worm holes


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It sort of looks similar to the piece of flamed birch for a headstock veneer (or four after resawing) I found in the scrap bin. The top was almost perfect on both sides and the second one could have been used for bookmatching with just a few small marks. But the third and the fourth appeared to be almost like Swiss cheese after cleaning with compressed air! But they have a very pretty flame so trashing isn't the first option. We discussed the matter and thought that epoxy might be the best option. Instead of epoxy putty which works well for grooves on the surface we thought about drowning them into liquid epoxy so every hidden hole would be strengthened as well.

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is it really of any use w/o being split?  I'd just split it and let the chips fall where they may.  if you have a lot of worm hole... it could be cool to pack it with mop chips and fill w epoxy.  you could just do some random inlay or makaray to hide it.  won't really know till you see it.

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13 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

is it really of any use w/o being split? 

A dozen headstock veneers... And some pot knobs from the better parts... Waste of interesting material, IMO.

A roadmap of worm paths filled with some contrasting material on a bookmatched figured top may look gorgeous!

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If it's supposed to be bookmatched for a drop top, I'd go ahead and split it. If it's mild, I'd prolly fill them with the same color epoxy I'd be dyeing the top. If it's like an ant farm in there, leaving the quilt plain and filling them with colored epoxy could lead to interesting results. Or it could be garish and hideous. In any event, you already have the wood, so ya might as well see what you can (or cant) do with it.'

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3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

A dozen headstock veneers... And some pot knobs from the better parts... Waste of interesting material, IMO.

A roadmap of worm paths filled with some contrasting material on a bookmatched figured top may look gorgeous!

couldn't agree more.

 

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5 hours ago, woodfab said:

Well I just cut in in half., and it's not as bad as I thought!

I guess, Now what shape for the body?

Oh my! That's gorgeous! I can't see any worm holes.

Regarding shape... A bookmatched figuration shows best on large symmetrical areas, on pointy guitars most of the beauty will be lost. A single cut round(ish) bottom has the largest show area. A rifle stock with a scratchplate is the opposite...

Speaking of scratchplates, a radiused/drop top falls away from the strumming plectrum and so does a heavily carved LP style top. Also, if the neck sits at an angle the strings are higher from the top. Both make using a scratchplate less important, leaving more wood visible.

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7 hours ago, woodfab said:

I'm thinking of putting 1/8" pieces of maple in each glue joint, like a pin strip.

That's going to look delicious! Not to mention that maple stripes of that thickness really add stiffness and strength to a neck.

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