How to Deal With a Sap Pocket---Suggestions?

[Andy Morton]

Well---I uncovered a sap pocket in the scroll area while carving my red maple back...I am thinking of staining that area dark brown anyway. But..have any of you cut out the area and inserted a patch with matching grain?

The outside of the back is pretty much done (except in in the scroll area).

Recommendations? Tips? Opinions?

Andy

[sunburst]

You never can tell how big those things are. Sometimes we can carve past them.
In this situation, the best route may well be to use a dark sunburst to cover it up if it doesn't carve away. Under a dark stain, no one will ever find it.
If you try to cut it out and patch it, my experience says you have about a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a good enough grain match and a tight enough fit of your patch to make it "disappear". In other words, if it's patched it will look patched.

[pops1]

I once bought a guitar with a mark on the back, I liked it because of the mark and it was only my guitar that would have that mark. Sometimes the unique is a plus, but then not everyone thinks like I do.

[Steve Sorensen]

One thing I'll tell you, the more I stressed out about a wood "flaw" like this, the more interesting the subsequent life of the instrument.

The first time I posted pictures of a pity bark inclusion, the mandolin went on to be my first to get recorded in a chart-topping bluegrass CD. Since then, the pattern seems to keep repeating.

On the other hand, there is a lot of perfect maple sitting in cases in dusty corners . . .

Steve

Steve

[HoGo]

I had good luck bleaching such spots on maple with strong technical hydrogen peroxide (30%). After couple applications (let dry for few hours after each) they come almost as light as the rest of the wood.

[Bill McCall]

I’ve never heard of a sap pocket in maple. That looks like a mineral stain, typical in hard maple. It apparently didn’t show on the other side, but excavating it may cause a different set of problems. I’d seal it good and cover it with a dark stain but it won’t hurt to try to bleach it first.

[Charles E.]

I have a number of sets of red maple with very deep flame and mineral stains. A violin maker friend told me "those aren't mineral stains, those are golden tone threads".

[Skip Kelley]

Andy, everyone has given you good advice! I'd just roll with it!

[Andy Morton]

Yes---thanks everyone....I agree about it likely being a mineral stain. That area will be stained pretty dark so it shouldn't be a problem.

I may try bleach....as I used to do when refinishing furniture.

Thanks again!

Andy

Andy

[pops1]

I had good luck bleaching such spots on maple with strong technical hydrogen peroxide (30%). After couple applications (let dry for few hours after each) they come almost as light as the rest of the wood.

If you use the hydrogen peroxide at 30% don't let it touch your skin, it will burn you, well kind of, your skin will turn instantly white.

[sunburst]

I looked around and asked around and was downright stubborn about it, and I could not find a source for hydrogen peroxide in any concentration stronger than drug store H2O2 when I needed to bleach some wood some years ago. Where are y'all getting 30% H2O2?

[pops1]

John, I just googled food grade H202 and it came up on amazon. 35%. I think the food grade is what I have always know it as, maybe that will help in your search.

[HoGo]

John I'm not in US and for many things EU (or at least out countrys) legislature is way less strict than in US. We can ship celluloid, I can buy liter of 99,7% ethanol for 3EUR and I can get 35% H2O2 in pretty much any painstore or drug store around. I've use dit to bleach old darkened cardboard photo frames and such.

[CarlM]

Would other types of bleaches work? I am dealing with a much larger, similar "beauty mark" on a maple back and am trying to decide how much to reduce it and how much to highlight it.

[Vernon Hughes]

Pool supply houses carry peroxide that will eat the skin off your hands.

[O. Apitius]

I've used this stuff before with various results depending on what I was trying to accomplish.
https://www.rustoleum.com/product-ca...rs/wood-bleach

I got it at a local hardware store. For the stain in the OP's post, you may need several applications with a Q-tip or similar applicator. Try not to get the bleach on the surrounding wood if possible, otherwise you may end up bleaching both the mineral stain and the surrounding wood making the stain lighter but still in contrast with the surrounding wood.

[crooksj]

I did the cut/patch thing and was happy with the results since I was using a dyed sunburst finish. I can see the larger patch in the finished work, but someone who didn't know it was there probably would see it.
Pictures of before/after patch and finished:
Attachment 162405Attachment 162405

[Vernon Hughes]

Very nice!. No one will notice but you! We are our own biggest critics. Every mandolin I build has something that haunts me.

[Paul Busman]

Very nice repair!

[Tavy]

Nice job!

[Andy Morton]

Thanks everyone for the input....I am going to try the wood bleach approach. I pick up some made by Zinser at the local big box lumber/home improvement store. Well see....

Andy