MIMF

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!

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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

John Catto wrote: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.