Knot in a bad spot

[Brookside]

In the process of carving this sitka spruce soundboard, I have been blessed with this lovely sight. #This is only my second mando so I'm not accustomed to seeing this. #Is it hopeless? #It seems like a very bad spot for a blemish like this. #And what is with the dark area to the left of the knot. #It works like it is wet or sappy? #Thanks for any input.

[Mario Proulx]

You've hit a pitch pocket. About the only thing you can do is cut the section out and inlay another piece of spruce into it(but that'll always be very visible), or cut off a slice of the top, and glue an "ear" on, trying to match the grain direction and colors. With a dark sunburst, it won't show much at all if you do a good job of it. But don't do this if it's for a paying customer...

It will take less time to just start over with a new top, methinks. Sorry to see this happen, but it does indeed happen to every one of us once in a while.

Mario

[Spruce]

That's a pitch seam...

Pitch happens...

I'd ask your supplier (was it me?) to replace it, or give you a good deal on the next one...

It's hard to see things like this in a billet unless you're Superman or Rhoda Neganski...

One does see abnormalities like this in finished instruments, but it's obviously your call...

How dark and wide will your sunburst be? #It might cover it, no?

Luck!

[sunburst]

If you're going with a dark sprayed on sunburst you can disolve the pitch out of the hole with turpentine and fill it with epoxy, super glue, or casting resin.

If you want to do a spruce inlay, the best place to get a matching piece of spruce is from the cut-off scrap from near that place. Follow the grain lines and cut your patch from the same lines and you'll have a patch that "lights up" the same. That's the real secret to getting spruce to match, getting the runout the same. If you do a good job, and get a little lucky, the patch can end up darned hard to find, especially under a burst.

I found one in a blond archtop guitar that I was touching up some lacquer damage on a few years ago. I didn't notice it for about two days, then I thought it was a small area of unusual figure in the spruce, then I realized what I was looking at. The guitar was a very expensive one made by a very well known builder that we've all heard of. I see no reason not to use that top, it probably took the tree about 100 years to grow it.

[Brookside]

Well son of a pitch. I may as well embrace this as an opportunity to learn about a previously unknown pitfall. Since none of you posed a structural concern I think I will keep at it and plan to deal with it as only a cosmetic issue. I may attach an inlay or simply fill it as Sunburst suggested. At any rate, I'm sure with a dark edged sunburst it will be fine. Being a new builder, if this is my biggest cosmetic blemish I will be thrilled to have it.

You were not the supplier, Spruce. I bought it from Stew-Mac a few months ago. I wouldn't blame a supplier for this anyway. I looked at the billets very carefully when I first got them and they looked great. I fully understand that as you dig into the wood you may get into things. I don't think I'd ever bother a supplier with this.

I really appreciate the help on this. I'm going to work with it for now and see what I can do. It's not for a paying customer. Just my second go at building. (number 3 is in progress too!) Stay tuned for future pictures.

[sunburst]

Assuming this is an F-hole mando, there isn't much structural contribution from the wood to the outside of the holes.
The majority of the structural component of the spruce top involves the longitudinal stiffness of the wood, and that isn't affected significantly by that type of thing, or the patch you might insert.

If it's an oval hole, well look at the size of that big ol' hole! Were it not for bracing, there wouldn't be much structural integrity. That pitch pocket doesn't even compare!

[Spruce]

"#I wouldn't blame a supplier for this anyway."

I would....

This type of seam would have been a consistant defect in this tree, occuring at the same year all the way up the log...

You can spot the potential problem by looking at the end of the log. #My rule of thumb is that if you can see traces of pitch in more than one location in any given year on the butt end of the log, and that year falls within the pattern of the instrument that you're trying to mill out of the log, forget it...

I found a beautiful log that had been supporting a houseboat in Ketchikan for 25 years or so that was 4' in diameter--easily large enough to mill guitars. #But it had a pitch seam 6" in from the cambium, thus making it a candidate for mandolins/violas only.

I could have milled archtop guitars and hoped that the seam wouldn't show, but the odds are good that the result would have been similar to what you are experiencing with this piece of wood, Brookside...

Whoever milled it (it wasn't Stew-Mac) probably was in the same position with this log. #Mandolin wood is usually a by-product of guitar wood anyway, so if it doesn't show, send it out. #But the odds are good that the pitch will show at some point...

"#I'm going to work with it for now and see what I can do. #It's not for a paying customer."

I'm not a big fan of pitch pockets, but as a woodcutter and vintage instrument lover, I am a big fan of other "defects" in tonewood. #I love to see pinknots and knot shadows in tops, or a burl in the back in both old and new instruments. #I gives character and shows that the makers has confidence in his/her work.

It's common for violin makers who are making bench copies of old instruments to choose wood that captures the spirit of the old wood--wood that often had pinknots, knot shadows, or even pitch pockets in their tops....