Headstock Veneer Replacement on Princess Banjo Mandolin

You may recall in our last episode we were left hanging with a new piece of rosewood glued to the back of the peghead.

The piece was more or less rectangular shaped and overlapped the peghead so I could trim it back.

This gives you an idea of how much I had to work with.  You can see the long section has already been trimmed - this contoured section at the top remains to be done.

I used a couple of small files and 220 grit sandpaper to trim the excess.

And here it is finished.  I still need to smooth it out a bit more, but it's there in terms of the shape.

I think this is going to work.

Lesson learned:  don't try to remove old veneer to fix cracks.  Leave them on the instrument and fill them.

There is a seam between the old veneer and the new.  The old piece is about .058 of an inch (about .58mm) thick, and the new one is about .010 thicker (.1 mm).

I just block-sanded the new piece down to the same height as the old one so it would match up.

Here it is.

I think this is going to work out.

Fortunately the original pieces were black.

I filled the seam with rosewood filler, sanded it flush and then used Fiebing's leather dye as a finish.

I had also sanded the old finish off the mating piece on the "heel" of the headstock.

The dye is like stain - messy, goes everywhere and will spread like crazy through porous surfaces.  I spread some on the top, and used a very fine paintbrush for the edges.

Came out well I think.

Now I'll spray clear nitro lacquer over it as it had been finished originally.  I think it will look good.

Just need to wait until the humidity outside drops some so I can spray outside.