Help with wood fillers

[Michael Pfau]

Has anybody had luck with wax wood fillers for nail holes, dings and such? I have tried wood fillers of many types and they seem never to blend in well. Woodcraft has a wax filler, and the type that you burn in. Just looking for some insight here if anybody has a brand or type they have had good luck with. Thanks...

[Don Baer]

For filling nail holes I mix sawdust with glue (the kind that is stainable) and use that. For dings I read somewhere on the creek that you can take an old Iron and a wet towel and steam them to raise the wood if they're not too deep. Haven't tried it but it would be worth a try.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Michael...as previously stated by Don I've used a damp towel and a common steam iron to successfully raise dents in furniture. I've also used the wax fillers to fill nail holes. It seem to work well and I was able to make a good color match. The ones I used didn't require melting them though I suppose you could. The wax fillers I used were in a "crayon form" and you just "colored" them in until the hole was filled. I used them nail holes and small scratches. Good luck!

[Jim Becker]

Yes, I have been using the colored filler sticks with great success. They are used after you have done most of your finishing so you can do a real color match and go on/in just before your final top coats. For woods that darken over time, use a slightly darker shade of filler. For woods like walnut that get lighter...just the opposite.

If you are using any kind of coloration on your project any filler made with glue is going to be quite obvious if you try and color it at the same time as your tint the wood. (The best filler for use pre-finishing is...wood. Slivers with the same grain orientation as where they are going and preferably from the same stock. You can get nearly invisible repairs that way)

[Jerry Clark]

I have used CA glue and sanding dust for filling small voids in wood-- and used MS (thinner) on dings which seems to raise the grain. :cool: