fixing a crack

[Bill Winter]

I just stained a project made of cherry with cherry stain. I know this is sacrilegious but this is what the customer wants. While wiping away the excess I noticed the crack you see in the attached pics. I knew the crack was there and I chose to ignore it, thinking it would not be noticeable once stain was applied. As soon as I wiped away the excess stain the crack stuck out like a sore thumb. The crack is approximately 1/64" deep X 1/64" wide X 1 1/4" long. How do I fix it? I was thinking of widening it and doing some sort of inlay (ebony?) in this one and the other 7 "legs". What do y'all think of this idea. I prefer to just fix it. Does anyone make a stainable filler? By the way I can live with the small crack next to the big one.P1010369.jpgP1010370.jpgP1010372.jpg

[Mark Bolton]

Youve got other adjacent issues, why not just stabilize it as best you can and float it to the customer that "this is wood". I dont think youll have any long term success with a repair given the other issues around the area other than making a new one.

P.S. dont listen to the wood snobs about staining cherry or staining any wood for that matter. It happens every day and is perfectly fine and acceptable. Those people live in the dillusion of their own minds.

[Michael A. Tyree]

Many store bought fillers claim stainable, yet can be butt ugly stained IMO. At times, I use heated, colored crayons to fill minor cracks after all liquid finish is applied, then wax over that.
A master craftsman came to my area in the 1960's from East TN to do a furniture startup/training program. It got going well , had a fleet of trucks then died on the vine. He used latex redwood barn paint to stain cherry if he was after a reddish tone. His other cherry stain leaned toward brown.
I would not inlay the crack.

[Jamie Buxton]

Do you have any offcuts from the original board? If you do, I'd be inclined to try patching the crack with the offcut material. It might not be a perfect color match, but because it comes from the same board it should be close. And on top of that, you're adding stain, which masks color differences in the underlying wood.

To cut a trench, you can use the table saw. You shouldn't freehand it. Rig something so you can register the workpiece against the fence. You can make the trench with a thin-kerf blade running vertical, or you can make a thinner trench by beveling the blade over to 45 degrees to cut a v-shaped trench. If you don't get it fully into the workpiece, you can cut a very narrow trench. Glue in a square cross-section patch, and plane it down to flush after the glue sets.

[Frank Pratt]

I'd try to fill it with a sliver of the original stock. It's narrow enough that there is a good chance it will just disappear. I've never been able to make filler look good, no matter how hard I try. Check out this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/johnsonrestoration
He does some very good work.

But as Mark said, that piece of wood has some other serious issues going on in that area, so who knows what will open up in the future.

[Mark Bolton]

I'd try to fill it with a sliver of the original stock. It's narrow enough that there is a good chance it will just disappear. I've never been able to make filler look good, no matter how hard I try. Check out this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/johnsonrestoration
He does some very good work.

But as Mark said, that piece of wood has some other serious issues going on in that area, so who knows what will open up in the future.

Yeah, photo 3 kinda shows that entire corner as compromised. I cant honestly count the times Ive seen a small check or an issue and thought it wouldnt be a a big deal and inevitably it either is, or winds up in a place where your just shafted. This looks like one of those times I remember all too well.

Best to just chalk it up to experience (unless your an idiot like me who seems to continually think a small check will be ok).

Crazy part is most of these solid wood forms that are deeply/heavily carved are going to do their own thing over time which will likely involve a big fat check in the part somewhere. If it werent for the customer want I'd take a V gouge to those defects and open them up and leave them there... But if it needs to be clean... its a re-make. The issues around the man check in image 3 will likely only get worse over time.

[johnny means]

I'd fill that with CA glue and as stated above fill the visible area with a splinter. We work with a lot of reclaimed wood and almost nothing can get out the door with several such bandaid.

[Lee Schierer]

I'd try to fill it with a sliver of the original stock. It's narrow enough that there is a good chance it will just disappear. I've never been able to make filler look good, no matter how hard I try. Check out this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/johnsonrestoration
He does some very good work.

But as Mark said, that piece of wood has some other serious issues going on in that area, so who knows what will open up in the future.

This is what I would do. If done carefully it will be just about invisible. If those divots are holes you can also fill them with slivers of closely matched wood carefully tapped into place, cleaned up, stained and then CA glued in place before final finishing.

[Bradley Gray]

I agree with Mark that a restart would be best.

If you need to fix it, thickness sand to remove the 1/64" depth of the crack.