|
estebanana -> RE: Possible substitution for pumice [?] (Mar. 1 2011 22:57:11)
|
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.
|
|
|
|
