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RE: Possible substitution for pumice [?] (in reply to M.S.A.)
Beautiful, violin makers use it. One of the traditional schedules of abrasive to rub out violin varnish is pumice, diatomaceous earth and then rotten stone. I've used it and it's nice to see the pictures.
Pumice is a better pore filler because it's essentially ground volcanic glass, but the DE is an order of grit less rough and it does have it's uses.
RE: Possible substitution for pumice [?] (in reply to M.S.A.)
When using pumice at the very first stages of polishing - are we trying to fill the pores with pumice or are we using the pumice to form a grinding paste to cut the wood grain so that the wood itself forms the filling medium?
I was suprised to hear from an earlier post that when removing the polish a white pumice filling was visible? Is this normal?
Having said that... I used have previously rotten stone as a first cutting agent and had a pretty bad result as a dirty finish could be seen.
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RE: Possible substitution for pumice [?] (in reply to M.S.A.)
Oh boy rotten stone is for later and it used over a totally varnish sealed surface with oil as a vehicle. It will mess up raw wood by clogging it and discoloring it.
Rotten stone is cool and it's fun to know about historical stuff, but Micromesh and especially Buflex sheets have replaced it for final guitar finishing. Still it's much cheaper than the modern fine abrasives. Back in the pre industrial times sharkskin was used as a kind of fine sandpaper and then pumice, DE and rotten stone were used.
The other use for DE is in painting, old masters and modern painters alike have used it o build up body in oil paints. If you look close at paintings by Braque you can see he sometimes mixed sands and other fine dusts like DE in the paint.
Funny what things bring back memories. My first teacher showed me how to polish finishes with this stuff when I was a teenager. he was a violin restorer and bowmaker and I was taught to varnish the cellos and then rub them out with these abrasives. Things were so simple then, all I had to do was sit there and be taught. I wish I could hang out with that guy again, but he's gone.
RE: Possible substitution for pumice [?] (in reply to M.S.A.)
Cool pictures, the fourth one looks like an alien spaceship. I never got into the whole epoxy pore filling thing, to stinky, messy and not any easier to use then pumice just different. I have never had pumice look like chalk ground into the pores like your picture shows ever, perhaps they didn't care a whole lot because it was going to be buried underneath a coloured finish.
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