filling in gaps

[Paul Zonneveld]

I have just finished up on the construction of a pair of bookcases for the home. Made from walnut and canary wood and I have a question about some miter gaps. The base of the bookcase and the top have mitered corners and two of them have some small gaps in the joints. With walnut what would be the best method to fill the gaps in? I plan on finishing just with tung oil (100% tung). What are my options here?

[Steve Schoene]

With an oil finish your filling options are a bit reduced. I would apply a first coat of oil to establish the color and then use a wax pencil of a matching color (or colors) to fill the gap. Then complete the finish.

Remember if you plan to use pure tung oil that you NEED to be patient. Apply a coat, let it penetrate for a bit, and wipe off all you can off the surface. Then let it cure for several days, even though it may "feel" dry, before sanding lightly with about 400 grit and applying the next coat in the same way. It will take 5 or more coats to get to an even satin finish. If you rush it you can get white specks in the pores or a frosted appearance that might appear weeks or even months down the road.

Oil/varnish mixes, such as Watco will give a very similar appearance to the tung oil, but offer additional protection from spills and the like.

BLO will give only a slightly darker finish and needs only overnight curing before applying the next coat. About the same protection (essentially none) as the tung oil.

[Phil Phelps]

Have you tried filling the gaps with walnut shavings? Unless they are craters, you can fill and trim, then coat it out with your finish.

[Bob Childress]

Have you tried filling the gaps with walnut shavings? Unless they are craters, you can fill and trim, then coat it out with your finish.

What he said. Works quite well if you are careful. :)

[Greg Crawford]

If you carefully burnish the corners, just pushing in the sharp points, it will sometimes fill the gaps and never leave a clue that there ever was a gap. However it's done though, filling sometimes makes it look worse than just leaving a small gap, so maybe you should just leave it alone. After all, most of the time we are our own worst critics. It may look marvelous to everyone else.

Greg

[Todd Burch]

You can always turn a construction screw-up into a design feature.

For instance, for your gaps in the miters of the walnut, you could run a saw kerf down the whole joint, making a big, consistent gap. Then, fill it with walnut end grain, for a very slight but noticeable contrast, or, for a larger contrast, some canary wood strips. Face grain walnut would work too obviously.

Todd