Filling hole - suggestions, please!

[Manuel Kellermann]

Hi everyone!

I'm going to build a semi-solid using this piece of walnut as top:

There is this knot hole I intend to plug somehow:

I don't want to cover anything up - I just want it closed and still look like a knot hole. I was thinking of ebony dust.
Don't know what bonding agent to use, though.
The guitar will get an oil finish so whatever I plug it with should be compatible.

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

Manuel

PS: I don't want to put a pickup switch in that place!

[Mark Swanson]

That hole is quite round. A better way to fill a hole like that is with solid wood, and not a filler of any kind. So, use a dowel of some kind, either of walnut or ebony, whatever. If you drill out the hole to be perfectly round, and then use a plug cutter to cut a dowel so that the grain will remain consistent it'll look ok.

[Manuel Kellermann]

Thanks Mark!

You're right - solid wood is of course always the better solution.
I thought about drilling it out, but I really want to keep the looks of the knot hole. Maybe I could "inlay" a solid wood plug...

[Steve Senseney]

I agree with Mark.

I would add that if you can get a cross section of a small limb, the grain pattern would be circular instead of going the wrong direction.

[Jeff Mills]

Pretty chunk of wood that hole almost looks like it may be in a good spot for a 3-way switch. If it were mine - I would stablize the sides with some thin CA then pack it with clear two part epoxy mixed with coffee grounds. Then I would Level and scrape it flat. If it's still low then I would continue filling with just clear epoxy.

[Steve Senseney]

If you use real wood, you can treat it as real wood and stain, pore fill, sand and finish as you normally would.

I don't think coffee grounds will work the same.

The use of any standard glue would work for the plug.

I agree that it might be a good spot for a control knob.

[Jason Rodgers]

That's a sweet drop-top. I'm sure you can come up with something interesting to do with that knot hole. At various art fairs and outdoor markets, I've seen a trend in the work of bowl turners to bring the eye to defects (features!) by filling cracks and knot holes with reconstituted stone. It gives the look of striking a vein of some semiprecious stone.

[Steven Wilson]

I would just leave the hole and tell any one that asked it held the dowl that the most beautiful women hung her night dress on before before I reused the timber.

[Manuel Kellermann]

Thanks for all the comments!

Well, I guess epoxy doesn't go too well with oil finishes, does it? Any experience?

So I either inlay something, or - leave it. A miniaturized sound-hole! Great Ideas so far!

There won't be a 3-way switch on this guitar, since this one is for myself and I always keep hitting anything that is mounted in that place when playing!

[David King]

Epoxy does just fine under oil though it will look glassy compared to the surrounding wood. I often use truoil over a West systems grain fill. It looks very nice.

How about a large magnifying glass taped over it to make it overwhelmingly obvious. A convex lens could render it invisible if the focal length were just right.
Too bad smoking has gone out or it would have made a nice cigarette holder. You could mount a squirt gun nozzle in there and feed it from a reservoir with a small pump actuated by the vibrato bar or B-Bender.

[Mark Swanson]

David....you might be working too hard.

[Steve Senseney]

With the change in Marijuana laws, Christmas cookies may never be the same!

[Manuel Kellermann]

Don't give me the wrong ideas here, or I'll end up putting a pencil sharpener in that hole!

Or a key switch, so only I will be able to play the guitar amplified!

[Art Davila]

Have you ever seen the small pieces of burl wood blanks the sell for making pipes?
I remember seeing them in a wood working catalog a while back, but I can't remember which one, but that could be interesting and sill look natural.

[Eric Baack]

make it a semi hollow body and put a sound hole there

[John Catto]

Inlay is the way to go. Cut a small piece from the offcuts or if you didn't keep them the area that will be routed out for the pickup(s). don't make it even like a drilled out hole rather uneven so it looks like a natural knot (but one with wood in it). If you have a choice use wood that matches in tone but has an interesting figure to it since knots are usually "burl-like". Glue with epoxy witha lot of wood dust/chips mixed in.

[Mike Koss]

just stick one of those plastic dunlop pickholders over it. those always look classy.

[Alan Tobler]

Inlay is the way to go. Cut a small piece from the offcuts or if you didn't keep them the area that will be routed out for the pickup(s). don't make it even like a drilled out hole rather uneven so it looks like a natural knot (but one with wood in it). If you have a choice use wood that matches in tone but has an interesting figure to it since knots are usually "burl-like". Glue with epoxy witha lot of wood dust/chips mixed in.

Indeed, if making it less noticeable is your goal then follow John's recipe. I've always used the same approach with furniture and it always blends in nicely. A dowel or just about anything else will just make it more obvious.
Now if obvious is your goal, my vote would be a Ace Frehley pyro hole.