Paste Wood Fillers?

[Mike Leonard]

I am new at making and finishing furniture. After primarily lurking here for the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that this forum is a terrific source of knowledge and information.

My questions are this:

Does anyone use paste wood fillers on their open grain woods like oak, mahogany and walnut?

If so, do you use oil based or water based fillers?

What has produced the best results, natural or pigment colored fillers?

What brands have produced the best results?

Any recommendations on suppliers?

TIA
Mike

[Ted Shrader]

Originally posted by Mike Leonard
I am new at making and finishing furniture. After primarily lurking here for the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that this forum is a terrific source of knowledge and information.

Yep!

My questions are this:

Does anyone use paste wood fillers on their open grain woods like oak, mahogany and walnut?

If so, do you use oil based or water based fillers?

What has produced the best results, natural or pigment colored fillers?

What brands have produced the best results?

Any recommendations on suppliers?

TIA
Mike

Mike -

I have used M L Campbell's paste wood filler - primarily on walnut. I think Sherwin-Williams also has their own brand. I get the M L Campbell's at the Sherwin-Williams store.

That said, lately I have been applying a BLO/Tung/VM&P naptha brew to the piece on the outside surfaces and sanding with 400 grit Wet-or-Dry^® paper on a rubber sanding block. The slurry is forced down in the wood and fills the pores to level the surface pretty well. Wipe of the excess with a circular motion to force as mush in the wood pores as possible, then finish wiping with the grain.

Good luck,
Ted

[Paul Dwight]

I've used paste wood fillers a couple of times. I found the waterbased stuff dried too quickly to make it practical for furniture projects. The oil based products are a lot easier to apply because they don't dry as quickly. The downside, of course, is that you have to wait for the oil based fillers to dry completely before you can topcoat, which usually takes a couple of days. As for brands, I've used Behlen's Pore-O-Pac (catchy name, huh?) and a generic brand I found at a local hardware store, the name of which I can't remember.

I stained the wood, sealed with dewaxed shellac and then tinted some paste filler to match the "background" color of the wood. I used UTCs (universal tint colorants, I think) to adjust the color of the paste filler. I found the UTCs at one of my local big box stores.

I subscribe to the school that says nothing you put on wood will absorb stain the same way as the wood. Therefore, I stained first and tinted the filler to match the color of the stained wood.

Hope this helps. -- Paul