It sounds like your wood is not yet free of finish. If it is, it must be really hard wood to not take stain. It also may have silicone or oil in the wood. Try a degreaser or wash it with TSP Trisodium Phosphate in water. There are two kinds of filler and two uses for them. If you need to fill voids you may use Rock Hard or Bondo or whatever. This filler I will tell you about below is not to fill missing spots. It is to speed up pore filling once you start to apply finish. The colored wood fillers are available from Constantine's Go to: http://216.105.59.114/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=161 It is a good price, I buy the gallon. It is in several popular colors and IT lasts forever when you remove using my method. Once it is dry take it off with a credit card or a single sided razor blade. Save all shavings removed and put them back into the can and stir them in. You will need to thin it every so often with Naptha for fast drying. Before I use this I do a thinned wash coat of orange shellac to keep the paste color from staining the wood. The black filler down in the pores really brings out the grain of oak or mahogany. If that is too dark check out the other colors. D.L. Bullock St. Louis www.thepianoworld.com <http://www.thepianoworld.com> Do you or your family have a health challenge? Put YOUR BODY’S OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM to work for you----It is capable of repairing itself from EVERY disease if you give it the right fuel. Visit http://bullock.myglycostore.com <http://bullock.myglycostore.com/> to get the right fuel -----Original Message----- From: Greg Newell [mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net] Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 9:17 PM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Finishing questions Greetings artisans, I am faced with yet another finishing dilemma that I don't have the experience to solve on my own. I am working on the main lid of a smaller piano where the color seems to get progressively lighter from the point where the half lid folds over to the end of the lid. It does not seem to want to take stain or especially dye. What do I do? I am thinking of applying a filler to level off what may have been lost from the stripping process. What filler should I use and where is a good place to get it. Is it common to put on stain and filler in one process? I have used a very dark filler in the past but I was working for someone else at the time and have no idea what product it was or where it was obtained. Hints? I hate finishing but I think it's mostly because I'm just not very comfortable with it yet. I know there is a learning curve but i'd rather it wasn't at my customer's expense. ANY hints will be gratefully received! Thanks!! Greg Newell Greg's piano Forté mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net Wasn't there a list just for finishing topics?
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