Heres an extract of my Baritone build, it may help.
I have to fill and seal the body first so i have some Timbermate wood filler in natural and also some Birchwood Casey Sealer and filler, i may go the timbermate 1st to fill the grain then follow up with the BC sealer and filler, once that done i will start to tru oil the body
Prep for sealing plugged all the holes with bamboo skewers then cut them short
also gave it a sanding till smooth with 220
Then a single coat of tru oil sealer and filler
Have done a coat of Timbermate wood filler, its quite hot here and its going off quik. I made the Timbermate filler up to a slurry with water and covered the body with it using a plastic scraper and then i take it all of rather quickly, then leave 2 hours to dry, i will then sand it back and repeat steps one and two Tru oil filler sealer then timber mate filler i will then sand back until its smooth.
A day after the coat of Timbermate neautral filler i spend a bit of time sanding everything back with 220 grit, time consuming and gives you Popeye arms. After the sanding i ran over the body with the brush head of a vacuum cleaner then wiped the whole guitar with naptha. A second sealer coat was then applied, i went a bit thicker and made sure i got everthing.
Next is another coat of timbermate filler.
I have final filled the body again this afternoon and just now sanded it all back, its ready for another thick sealing coat as soon as i vacuum off the body and wipe it down with naptha. I look like a negative of a Welsh coal miner i am covered in filler dust.
I used neutral body filler on the first coat but it left the grain looking a little bit pinky so i added a slurp of Feast and Watsons maple stain to my liking, the colour of the paste will tell you what your getting. This filled the grain nicely and left it more natural.
A thick final seal needs to sit for 24hrs then we start with the coats of tru oil.
Hi Tonyw, thanks for the advice. Hoping to get a toffee apple translucent red finish over the ebony timber mate grain fill so that the grain looks like it is floating in the red stain. Not sure if your method would take ink or stain once a sealer has been used.
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