Official Luthiers Forum!

While carving a sitka archtop I discovered a small pitch pocket close to one edge. It has gotten smaller since I discovered it, It appears to be about 1mm deep. I have already reached .25" so I can't go deeper. It does not show any on the bottom, not even a stain.. It will be for me and I don't care cosmetically that it is there. It is wood after all. Should I worry about structure? Should I fill it later with epoxy the same color as the pitch? Should I try to inlay a piece of spruce?

Isn't it frustrating when that happens!!!
I would rout or "V" out the defect & inlay a piece of Spruce. In my meagre experience this looks better than a sawdust & glue fill job.
I had a few fibres pull on an Engelmann top while removing some masking tape & the sawdust fill job I did is very visible... It bugs me lots.

Been a while since I read Benedetto's book, but don't you have to put in a recurve along the edge after the box is together? Seems to me like you might remove the pitch when you get to that stage. Trying to patch it now might go deeper into the wood and leave a mark that you can see once the top has been recurved.

If you saved your cutoffs from when you cut ou the top, you can find some spruce that will match. Then, I agree with Daniel, "V" out the pocket with a "V" ended chisel, and cut a matching "V" from the cutoff a little larger/taller, then use HHG and clamp it in. Sand it down level, and it will look OK.

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

How about a Sunburst finish?
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

How about inlay?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

thanks for all the replies guy,, I guess when I get the recurve carved in I will have a better idea how bad it will look and how to repair it. Nobody mentioned a structural problem so thats good... That was my biggest concern.   
Crowduck and Daniel, if I do feel the need to hide it I will try the "v" chissel and cutoff piece.
Paul your right about having to put in the recurve yet, I'm not sure if its too close to the outer edge to get much better, we'll see.
Chas, I really like the sunbust idea, too bad I don't know how to do one.. I love them though..
Don, did you mean to inlay spruce or something with an artistic feel? Might be too close to the edge for that, depends on what I came up with..
Anyway thanks again. will keep you posted
Mike