filling/repairing borer tunnels in live-edge oak slab

[Tyler Davis]

I am working on a project to build a bench for our dining room table. I bought a nice 5/4 red oak slab that is been drying in a barn for ~15 years. I knocked off the bark and cleaned up most of the edge, but there are some insect borer tunnels that I'm not sure how to deal with. These tunnels run parallel to the surface, and I'm not sure how deep they go. The tunnels bored directly perpendicular to the surface (into the slab) look cool to me, and I plan to leave them -as-is, but these other tunnels have me perplexed. I'm afraid if I keep sanding I will take away most of the live edge on the slab. The tunnels are only on two 6" long sections across both 4' long live edges. I plan to finish with Minwax poly stain in Chestnut color.
Is there a goo wood filler product that will fill these tunnels and accept stain in a way that visually blends with the rest of the oak?

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[Robert Engel]

I'd go with a tinted epoxy to closely match the stain.

There are also fillers like Famowood in various shades.

First, I would do some probing with an awl because oftentimes the wood surround borer holes is punky, in which case a wood hardener might be called for.

[Richard Coers]

You sure everything is dead in there? Could be powder post beetle and those are the exit holes. When they exit, they lay an egg before they leave or die. I'd put that in an insulated box and heat to 150 degrees F for a couple of days to sterilize it. Either that or let it sit in your shop and see if any frass falls from new holes as new ones bore out. I'd suggest the first option!!!!

[Roger Feeley]

I just did a project where I filled a BUNCH of defects in oak. I used black tinted epoxy. After the fact, someone here commented that I should coat the inside of the hole with clear epoxy to prevent the tint from migrating. That explained some cases where my fillings looked blurry. Darn!

In your case, since you are going for a match, I don't think the filling would matter. But I thought it was worth mentioning in case someone else is planning to epoxy fill holes.

If you do this, you may want to consider some sort of sealing around the holes before you fill. The epoxy can be kind of stringy. I got a lot of epoxy on the surface of the wood. It didn't matter too much to me because the next step was to sand using a wide drum sander and I just sanded the extra off. In retrospect, it might have been a good idea for me to have shellacked first, then epoxy filled, sanded and shellacked again before final sanding and varnishing. Then my extra epoxy would have just laid on the surface.

[Nick Decker]

You sure everything is dead in there? Could be powder post beetle and those are the exit holes. When they exit, they lay an egg before they leave or die. I'd put that in an insulated box and heat to 150 degrees F for a couple of days to sterilize it. Either that or let it sit in your shop and see if any frass falls from new holes as new ones bore out. I'd suggest the first option!!!!

Agreed. Make sure they (and their offspring) are dead before inviting them into your house.

[johnny means]

We do a lot of this in white oak and wormy maple. We just fill everything with black epoxy. It looked better than you would think. Trying to oversolve usually stands out worse than just letting nature be what it is. You'll want a 5 minute epoxy for red oak as capillary action will let it flow until it cures.

[Steve Clardy]

Best to always remove bark before storing and drying green wood.

[Günter VögelBerg]

I have had good success filling such holes by mixing aniline dye with clear epoxy. Recently I had to fill some small cracks in walnut veneer and I bought a few different colors of the lockwood water-soluble dies and used different colors in different parts of the crack to make it less visible.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd cut out the worst of the damage, and reform the wavy live edge with a wire brush. You can buy wire brush in a wheel form to fit an angle grinder. The brush leaves a surface which isn't 100% like nature-made, but close enough for non-woodworkers. Being close enough is okay here because with the filled holes in the board's face, you're going to be showing a repaired board. I'm just suggesting you have two methods of repair: filling and texturing.

You can buy a wheel wire brush for $10-$15 at most big box stores. Welders use them for cleaning up welds.