Correction, "Old Bad Alcohol Near-Disaster"
Now who among us hasn't had one of those? Thank you for sharing... the story,
the broken heart, the Paddylac plug, and the brilliant save.
O'Deen
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Sunday, July 23, 2017, 5:51 PM, scott grandstaff wrote:
Well it finally happened. I had a shellac disaster.
I have been working on an 1890's Brazilian rosewood parlor guitar.
George Washburn, not your million dollar Martin or whatever. Nobody much
likes Washburn.
Well, there is no trussrod, it has a plain steel bar instead. And
originally the action was ridiculously high. Some fad at the time over
high action making for a louder guitar, is what I heard.
As far gone as the guitar was
(it got wet, body came loose, and proceeded to warp to beat the
band).....the neck was basically straight after 100 plus years!
There is a long sad tale in the background of this ax.
This guitar could have belonged to one of the loves of my life.
Somehow she got her feelings hurt over it, and I can't get it back. :(
So if I cant have the girl at least I get the ax.
Anyway the guitar was a mess (along with my heart.)
Here it is with clamps and lead bricks and full cans of paint,........
steaming it out
Steam, water, weights, pressure and time got it closer to being
functional ax parts again.
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/Instruments/beth's2.jpg
and gluing it back together. Slightly crooked but, oh well. If I'd have
tried to steam it all the way back out perfect it would have broken for
sure.
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/Instruments/beth's.jpg
Well I'd had just enough old shellac already mixed up to do the face
and sides
And that went well. But it was gone.
I mixed up some of my stash of Paddylac. I have hoarded/guarded this
stuff for years.
Ever since O'Deen was having his last ditch, going out of business sale.
At the time, the popular colors of super blonde and garnet were long
gone. But for some reason nobody wanted lemon flavor.
Lemon is just a little darker than blonde, and nowhere near as dark as
orange much less garnet, which I also love, btw.
This lemon stuff is divine when its right! Scrumptious.
Anyway my precious stash of lemon, kept cool and dry all these years.
And the new mix was awful! Not only refused to set up hard, but
it exploded in 68 million bubbles, large and small! And gummy fragile uck.
I thought maybe I had just laid it on too thick (never was a concern
before).
So I poured out a 1/2 cup of alcohol and dunked the corner of a
t-shirt rag in, soppy wet, and began to rub circles. In a short time it
had dissolved the top layer and pretty quick after that I was able to
rub out all the bubbles and smooth off somewhat. Didn't look so bad.
But overnight all the bubbles came back new again, and it was still
gummy! arghhhhhhhhhhhhh
Oh noooooooooo..... Not my precious Paddylac!!
I moped around for another day, then I got an idea.
I scooped up more flakes and put them in a small jar this time. (for a
test)
Then opened a tin of fresh alcohol and covered the flakes about 1/2"
higher than the flakes in the jar. Thick shellac like I like, but not as
thick as I can make it when I want to.
I just did a small jar in case the shellac was bad, why waste alcohol?
Next day it had dissolved. I gave it a test. I dipped a small stick
in and moved it over a scrap of wood and let it drip. Really a good test
because a straight drip is thicker than any brush can do. And in 20
minutes I could not dent it with my fingernail!!
Shellac was perfect (whew), it was merely old bad alcohol.
So I stripped the back of the guitar again.
Alcohol and a piece of thin oak cut off square and used as a scraper.
Final dry scraping with a regular scraper and a light touch.
Left it overnight.
Next morning I got out my favorite Purdy black bristle brush.
Opened up my new mix of shellac,
and laid down 2 --generous-- coats.
This time it was trying to set up fast! I had to keep wetting it to
feather out occasional bubbles or lumps etc.
Shellac is so forgiving. It lets you do that and more.
Slightly dampened brush and even setting up shellac you can still make
those long full length strokes and smooth it like burnished gold.
Its not perfect. But then neither are you or I. lololol
Hello Beautiful,
Daddy's home
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/Instruments/beth's8.jpg
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/Instruments/beth's7.jpg
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/Instruments/beth's6.jpg
yours Scott
--
*******************************
Scott Grandstaff
Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039
scottg@s...
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html
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