HELP! My Korina is shedding.

[Hbom]

I have a finish issue developing on my 2001 Artist Korina. There is a spot about 2" long by 1/4" wide  where the finish is coming off. 

It's not at all a Hameritis thing. At least I don't think so. I don't think that appears much in the post 2000 guitars. And it's not on the fret board edge, down more on the shaft of the neck.

It appears to be a small bit of heart wood showing that the finish is starting to come loose on.

Really a drag because it's right between 9th & 12th frets so it's right where my thumb spends a lot of time.

Any and all advise greatly appreciated.

Thanks Doug.

[Studio Custom]

Looks like normal wear in the photo.  

[kizanski]

On 6/30/2016 at 4:43 PM, Hbom said:

...it's right between 9th & 12th frets so it's right where my thumb spends a lot of time.

There's your answer.

[Hbom]

11 hours ago, Studio Custom said:

Looks like normal wear in the photo.  

That's my horrible photographic skills shining through. The finish is actually flaking off, not wearing away.

2 hours ago, kizanski said:

There's your answer.

Again just a bad pic of the problem. If it was wearing through I could understand what was going on, but this feels rough under my thumb and flakes away if I draw my finger nail over it.

[Hbom]

Thanks to Studio Custom & Mr. Kizanski. Sorry I didn't add a Thank You for the ideas. Still pretty early in my day.

[tbonesullivan]

Something has caused the finish there to lose adhesion. If it is flaking off, might be best to just help it along, and then do a touchup where it was.

[Hbom]

14 hours ago, tbonesullivan said:

Something has caused the finish there to lose adhesion. If it is flaking off, might be best to just help it along, and then do a touchup where it was.

Thanks Tbone. That's pretty much what I thought. But I'm not sure what to use for the touchup.

I read that Hamer used urelac by '01 so I'm guessing fingernail polish is not going to work. I've used superglue & drop filled small holes before but there's not really a hole to fill like with a ding. It's just thinned down to the wood with a slight edge left where the finish stops.

Do you think I can just wipe across it with some slow or medium set superglue then sand flush?

Or would it be better to use wipe on poly and hope for a match?

Thanks again

Doug

 

 

[murkat]

open up the cpa area, try a dab of lacquer thinner on a qtip  to the finish area with in, see what it does.

Does it liquidfy the finish, and if it does, how much? slow, fast, make mental notes.

I would attempt to...

tape off the infected area right to the edges of finish.

a very lightly moist qtip with lacquer thinner on it to quickly clean the bare (stained?) wood surface, infected area.

re finish with watts lacquer. you can find small pints of at home depot.

sand repeat with 600 w/d using naptha as the wet between coats till level, smooth, final w/d with 1200, buff out.

[Hamer Dave]

+1 to the murkat suggestion.

Just a thought... If your thumb spends a lot of time there, possibly person's body oil/sweat be breaking down the finish. I've seen weird things happen depending on the chemistry of ones sweat (or oil, etc.), to fret board epoxy fills where it softened it. Maybe was the epoxy, but I feel another persons chemistry may have never created the same effect. Like a severely acidic 'ph' environment, or ?.  

 

[Hbom]

20 hours ago, murkat said:

open up the cpa area, try a dab of lacquer thinner on a qtip  to the finish area with in, see what it does.

Does it liquidfy the finish, and if it does, how much? slow, fast, make mental notes.

I would attempt to...

tape off the infected area right to the edges of finish.

a very lightly moist qtip with lacquer thinner on it to quickly clean the bare (stained?) wood surface, infected area.

re finish with watts lacquer. you can find small pints of at home depot.

sand repeat with 600 w/d using naptha as the wet between coats till level, smooth, final w/d with 1200, buff out.

Jay, You are the best! Thank you very much! I think I might be able to handle that. If I was closer to Nashville I'd know exactly what to do, but shipping both ways makes it difficult to justify.

I'll have to find some scrap mahogany to practice on,( no Korina in my scrap pile) matching the Jazzburst will be a challenge, but having a place to start and an idea of the right finish to use will sure help.

Thanks again.

Doug

 

[Hbom]

9 hours ago, Hamer Dave said:

+1 to the murkat suggestion.

Just a thought... If your thumb spends a lot of time there, possibly person's body oil/sweat be breaking down the finish. I've seen weird things happen depending on the chemistry of ones sweat (or oil, etc.), to fret board epoxy fills where it softened it. Maybe was the epoxy, but I feel another persons chemistry may have never created the same effect. Like a severely acidic 'ph' environment, or ?.  

 

Dave That's a great question but I  think this is more of a matter of coincidence than chemistry. While I do play that area much of the time I really don't play this particular guitar enough to say that sweat or body acid is the cause. I think it is just an anomaly and that I was lucky enough to find the one guitar that had a funny little knot at just the right place.

[HSB0531]

On 7/2/2016 at 8:17 AM, kizanski said:

There's your answer.

And does your thumbnail dig into the neck at all?

[Hbom]

No. Good notion but I don't play that way. Thanks.