effect on finish of filled cherry?

[John Piwaron]

I've got some parts made of cherry that have some slight voids/blemishes that I intend on filling. The fill I have in mind is to mix cherry sanding dust with epoxy or CA to fill them.

What is likely to be the effect on the finish I apply. The finish I plan on using on this piece is an oil.

[Dick Parr]

John, I think it will match or it could be a little lighter. I have never tried it with CA glue before, only yellow glue.

If you have a scrap piece you might want to hit a couple of times with a sharp edge and fill that first before you try it on your finish piece.

The sawdust will work better then a puddy will. I have a couple of pieces that looked good and the sample but was light on the finish piece. I won't use colored puddy again. :mad:

Good luck and try it on a sample first.

[Chris DeHut]

I've got some parts made of cherry that have some slight voids/blemishes that I intend on filling. The fill I have in mind is to mix cherry sanding dust with epoxy or CA to fill them.

What is likely to be the effect on the finish I apply. The finish I plan on using on this piece is an oil.


Hi John,

You may want to consider leaving them if they are small dents. I know, you build a new piece of furniture and you want it perfect because it is new. However, I have learned about something called "Murphy's laws" many times over.

You drive home your new car - it's perfect. You take it to the store and the first trip out, someone opens their door into yours and gives you a dinger. "Murphy's law", no matter how careful, you will get a door ding sooner, rather than later.

Furniture is the same way. A kitchen table I built years back got a ding in the top within the first few days. It bothered me at first, but after a day or so, I realized it wasn't going to be new forever. Again, Murphy's law.

Fillers generally won't match up very well under light stains or clear finishes. Very thick, heavy bodied stains can hide all sorts of blemishes (perhaps this is why so much commercial furniture has stain as thick as paint on it). Cherry is a wood that will darken (Should be a Murphy's law). If you get lucky and hide the filler, 10 years down the road it may stand out like a sore thumb.

If they are dents, you can try the steam method to raise it back up again. Get your iron (clothes iron) set on a high temp - above 212 degrees. Then put a few drops of water in the dent. Give it some time to soak in. Then place the iron on the moistened dent and this may lift the dent right back up again. Works sometimes, not all the time. You should also test this process on a scrap - you could burn the wood and have a whole new problem to deal with.

Sorry to be so long winded - just had a few moments offer up some experiences :-)

Chris

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Chris...there is no filler you can use short of solid cherry carefully grain matched that will not stand out after finishing. Glue does not absorb oils or take stains consistantly and the commercial fillers can be quite disappointing. In fact, any filling of small nail holes, etc., is best done right before the final finish top coat so you can match things with a filler pencil to the actual color of the piece.

[Stan Smith]

I agree with Chris--especially about the car. Actually you don't ever get over it, but you get more mellow about as you get older.

I have some dings in a cherry jewelry cabinet that I just made for swmbo. At first, I thought that I had messed it up moving it around, but the lid has some dings that look like scratches but they are too deep to be other than natural-or at least that's what I think.

After the lacquer is on there for a week or so, I plan to apply some Mylands wax. I'm hoping that the wax will partially fill the voids and then the dings won't be so noticeable. I've heard that there are waxes that are colored but I've never tried them.

Stan

[John Piwaron]

I agree with Chris...there is no filler you can use short of solid cherry carefully grain matched that will not stand out after finishing. Glue does not absorb oils or take stains consistantly and the commercial fillers can be quite disappointing. In fact, any filling of small nail holes, etc., is best done right before the final finish top coat so you can match things with a filler pencil to the actual color of the piece.

I'll take the advise about the filler pencil.

What the situation is is that I resawed an 8/4 board to make bookmatched panels for the field in a set of frames I'm making that will become the case of drawers for a desk, some small amount of internal cracking was revealed. The grain is too nice to not use, and hey, this is cherry!

If possible, I'll try to cut it out, but it's likely that won't happen. Perhaps I'll use them on the back or somewhere less directly noticable and not do anything at all.