finish questions-can it be improved easily?

[ashemando]

An F style has a repaired back seam.I beieve the seam was sanded then relacquered. There appears to be a "smudged" area
where the grain is obliterated. An easy fix to restore the grain? It would be purely for
cosmesis.

[ashemando]

pix of area-having trouble getting one onto the board-any hints?

[PaulD]

Make sure your pic is less that about 100K Bytes in size. Type your post, click on "Preview Post" and then browse to the image location that appears a couple of frames below the typed message (as opposed to the previewed message). The name of the picture file should be showing in the text box next to the "Browse" button before you click "Add Reply".

[ashemando]

here is the problem

[ashemando]

The area of concern is about 6 x 2 inches-I would think that the grain would exist throughout the width of the back-shouldn't more sanding bring it out?

[Paul Hostetter]

Nope, it'll just make the back thinner and make you have to do a full refinish. Whatta mess that would be. What you see is what the wood actually looks like, in all its semi-bookmatched glory. It's not an artifact of any previous repair.

[LouisianaGrey]

From the limited view it looks to me like one half might have been put on upside down - i.e. one half has the tight flaming at the centre seam the other one has it at the edge.

[Paul Hostetter]

It could be that mismatched, or it could just be the nature of the flitch it came from. Figure like this:

http://www.avalonacoustics.com/images/maple.jpg

. . .exists when you can bookmatch flat and well-selected pieces. In other words, if this was the face of a block an inch thick, and you proceeded to carve a back out of it, you might very well find that what was perfectly bookmatched up on the flat plane lost that level of matching detail as you subtracted wood to get to the carved/curved final surface. Like this:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/d/rdevelli/images/LH_Back_flame_1.jpg

I'd still like to see a shot of the whole back.