Cherry wood filler

[Justin Rapp]

Hi all,

I am working on a project with cherry and need to fill a few small small chips in the wood from my router. I was looking at Rocker's Wunderfil cherry wood filler but am open to suggestions before I order it.

Thanks

Justin

[Bob Michaels]

I like Famowood. Comes in a variety of wood species. If you use it, their solvent is great for rejuvenating dried up filler in the can. It does dry very quickly.

[Tom Scott]

Unless you are heavily staining and/or toning, I would do what I could to avoid using a wood filler on a solid cherry project.

[Joe Kieve]

I agree with Bob Michaels, Famowood is not bad. You don't have to use their solvent/thinner though. Acetone works just fine. I had a can that had completely dried up. Poured some acetone in it, let it sit for a couple of hours and stirred it up; good as new.

[Danny Hamsley]

I used wood filler once on cherry, and the match was perfect. Then, the cherry darkened, and wood filler did not.

You can use cherry sanding dust, add some wood glue to make up a biscuit dough consistency, and use that to fill small cracks and voids.

[Al Weber]

There is a product out there called Timbermate that is a water based filler. I've used it on cherry chips with excellent results. It is available from Woodcraft. By the way, if you use walnut, the walnut color after being diluted with water to a thin paste consistency, it a great pore filler.

[Keith Hankins]

I use cherry almost exclusively. I can tell you from experience fillers will not work. Even if you get the color right in the beginning, as it ages it will stick out like a sore thumb. Depending on the size of the spot, two options, fill with thick cryocycolate (super glue). It will generally turn black and look like a small pitch pocket. I use that one all the time. Again, not seeing the pit to fill that may or may not work. Second, I would go with a design feature. I've added a walnut butterfly, before or diamonds. However, if it's in a highly visible area, I fear you will not be happy with a filler. Now if you are coloring the cherry with a dye, you can get pretty creative, but time will get you. Good luck.

[Prashun Patel]

I agree with Keith.

Can you post a picture of the chips? Depending on how natural those gouges look, I'd recommend either planing/sanding them out or leaving them alone.

As a third option, some cherry has naturally black inclusions. If you are facile with a gouge, you might be able to alter the area around the chipout to look like one of these. Filled with blackened epoxy (the T88 Epoxy I use is amber and clear enough that I actually don't color it when using it as a filler; I like the effect) it can look quite natural - or at least that you're not trying too hard.

[Bradley Gray]

I use a lot of cherry. If I need to fill defects, I wait until the finishing stage. After spraying the first couple coats of varnish I fill defects with 5 minute clear epoxy. If your timing is good, when the epoxy is just set you can slice the epoxy level with the surface with a sharp (duh) chisel. The clear epoxy reflects the color around it even after aging.

[Justin Brukardt]

I like Famowood. Comes in a variety of wood species. If you use it, their solvent is great for rejuvenating dried up filler in the can. It does dry very quickly.

Glad to see this. Im repairing a walnut table that a dog chewed on, and all the fillers i had in my shop were just way way too light for the walnut. I special ordered 4 varying colors of Famowood to see how those would work, glad to see some good feedback here about it.

[Justin Rapp]

I will try to get a picture of the chips in the next day or so when I get a chance to go back into the workshop. The good news, it's not going to be that visible. I do like the idea of going with either a clear or black epoxy or trying the saw-dust / glue idea. I don't plan on staining the wood at all. Most likely just a mat finish poly.

I have filled walnut with very good results.

[J.R. Rutter]

For cherry, I mix sanding sawdust with thick cyanoacrylate to make a paste, and smear it into defects - it generally looks like a pitch pocket or mineral streak.

[Tom Scott]

Depending on the size of the chip, there are alternate ways to patch. My favorite for small imperfections involves using a gouge to cut out the area, then creating a patch out of scrap wood (matching grain and color as much as possible) with the same gouge and then gluing in. With the feathered edges it is barely (if at all) visible. There are other methods, and I believe there was an article in FWW some time back about this.

[Bruce MANNING]

I have seen this fix before and it is invisible if the nature of the nick allows you to do it

[Justin Rapp]

I tried to get a picture but the slither of missing wood didn't show up on the picture. I am going to try the sawdust/glue trick and see if that works.

[Richard Coers]

Chips from a router? Rip off the wood, glue on a new piece, and start over. Ever seen putty on a routed edge of a nice piece of furniture? Seam maybe, molding never!

[Justin Rapp]

Chips from a router? Rip off the wood, glue on a new piece, and start over. Ever seen putty on a routed edge of a nice piece of furniture? Seam maybe, molding never!

The chip is actually on a seam where I put in a rabbit to join two pieces of wood....