Ideas for "patching" inlay on reclaimed nail tearout

[Mike Buelow]

374929Building a farmhouse table from reclaimed dimensional hardwood lumber of varying species374929374929. Lots of nail holes and similar "character". But there's one big tearout that I'd like to deal with. Any ideas for an inlay that could "patch" this hole? I've also added a butterfly key on the crack above since the photo. Another butterfly key wouldn't make sense, IMHO, since the tearout is longitudinal to the grain.

Suggestions appreciated as always.
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//Sorry for the attachment madness!

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I would just chisel out a shallow mortise (1/4 perhaps), make a patch to fit, and glue it in. If you make the patch a little “proud” and then finish it with a block plane after the glue dries you should be able to get a very good fit.

Spend some time looking through your scrap to find a piece for the patch that will match the color and grain reasonably well. It won’t be “perfect” but as you say, the table has character anyway. It certainly won’t be any more noticeable than the butterfly.

[Pat Barry]

I would just chisel out a shallow mortise (1/4 perhaps), make a patch to fit, and glue it in. If you make the patch a little “proud” and then finish it with a block plane after the glue dries you should be able to get a very good fit.

Spend some time looking through your scrap to find a piece for the patch that will match the color and grain reasonably well. It won’t be “perfect” but as you say, the table has character anyway. It certainly won’t be any more noticeable than the butterfly.
This is what I would try to do. Looks like Ash? Might find a cutoff with a close grain or color match to use.

[Patrick Chase]

Ae there any non-obvious structural concerns here that limit how deeply/extensively you can patch or that otherwise constrain the geometry of the patch?

That looks like the lip of a breadboard end, and the captions suggest that to be the case...

[Mike Henderson]

I'd do as Nicholas said but I'd only do the long break to the side of the nail mark. I'd leave that nail mark and just patch the "splits".

It'll mostly show where the end grain meets. If you can do that where it's not an even across connection, it'll be less obvious. With luck, someone would have to look really close to see the patch.

Mike

[Patrick Chase]

Ae there any non-obvious structural concerns here that limit how deeply/extensively you can patch or that otherwise constrain the geometry of the patch?

That looks like the lip of a breadboard end, and the captions suggest that to be the case...

Thinking out loud: Assuming that is the lip of the breadboard end, I'd do what others have suggested but with one wrinkle: Make the mortise about half the thickness of the lip or less. That way you'll keep the existing wood and its continuous fibers along the inside of the breadboard slot, and the patch will have a massive long-grain glue interface that should mitigate potential strength impacts.

If you're really paranoid you could slope the ends of the mortise and the patch to create scarf joints along the grain axis, so that you don't have weak end-to-end-grain seams at the ends of the patch.

[Mike Buelow]

Ae there any non-obvious structural concerns here that limit how deeply/extensively you can patch or that otherwise constrain the geometry of the patch?

That looks like the lip of a breadboard end, and the captions suggest that to be the case...

There's a haunched tenon underneath, but the mortise has over 1/2 of meat to dig into.

[Mike Buelow]

Hi guys-

Thanks for the input. Finally got around to the inlay last night. Went with a plain rectangle. It matched almost too well! Also can see the dutchman that was added between OP and now. Photo attached.

Thanks for the insights!
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