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

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------
OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage,
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.

To change your subscription options:
https://oldtools.swingleydev.com/mailman/listinfo/oldtools

To read the FAQ:
https://swingleydev.com/archive/faq.html

OldTools archive: https://swingleydev.com/ot/

OldTools@s...

Scott, I got 404 on all the pictures.

Dear Scott:

Holy smokes and wowzer! What an amazing save! I sincerely dig the early
Washburn slot-heads. Some real gems among them, and they all had real
style, if you know what I mean. Gratifying to see such a beauty end up in
your good hands to be brought back to life. Invigorating!

Greg Isola
Alameda, CA
who has a 12-fret slot-head of the someday to-do list, for sure...

On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 5:51 PM, scott grandstaff 
wrote:

> On Jul 23, 2017, at 17:51 , scott grandstaff  wrote:
> 
>  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.

I looked at those pictures, and immediately wondered how
you got hold of my great-grandma's guitar! The one I have
is basically identical to yours, and was similarly abused
(a side kicked in, and a hot and leaky attic). After some
repair that I think was hamfisted, it plays reasonably well
and actually has a very pleasant sound with nylon strings.

Great work, Scott!

Adam
Port Angeles, WA