Spalted Maple coffee table

[Dan Chouinard]

Good morning,
I was asked to build a live edge coffee table with waterfall ends from spalted maple. It is my first experience with this wood and I am really not a fan of the look. I need product advice for filling some small holes (a few bb size and one slightly larger) and a soft spot near the bottom of one leg. Any recommendations for repair would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[George Yetka]

https://knottec.com/ these systems use a glue gun and an aluminum block to quickly cool the material. then flush trim it.

Smaller stuff you can use tinted CA if the colors will match I have used brown/black/white CA these colors may not be the best for maple

Last scenario would be the sanding dust from that wood and wood glue mixed up will fill the holes with the right color.run sander over the filled hole when it is still wet to get more dust in there. Make sure not to use extractor when doing this

[Jimmy Harris]

Are you staining the wood? Are the holes in the spalted section? Can you post pictures?

I don't know what to say about the soft spot. In my experience, it's best to just avoid using that part of the wood. But it kind of depends on how bad it is, where it winds up, and what the cause of the softness is.

As for the holes, I typically rely on Famowood, wood filler. I can get it at my local Ace. They have it in all kinds of wood colors, and I've had excellent results with their maple color matching maple. Or really any color they offer. It's also stainable. But it doesn't stain exactly like real wood, so it's best used on small spots that can go relatively unnoticed. It kind of depends on the stain you're using. Another option would be to get a plug cutter and drill out the hole and fill them with plugs, then plane them flush. Done right, that's usually the best option on larger holes. Especially if you have a scrap cutoff from the original board that you can use and are careful to line up the grain as best you can. But for smaller holes, it's not usually worth the effort.

If you're trying to fill a hole in the spalted section, then that's going to be a bit harder. I would just fill that with whatever method you chose and then after staining the rest of the wood, come back in and paint that section to match. But I recognize that's not easy to do.

[Howard Pollack]

I have, over the years, used sanding dust from whatever project I'm working on mixed with the finish that I plan to use. Mix it to a thick slurry, put it on and scrape it level with a credit card cut to a useful size. Be sure to let it dry, sand it and finish as usual. This eliminates any lack of compatibility issues that might arise. -Howard

[Dan Chouinard]

I found systemthree quick cure five at the local woodcraft. I may try that where there is rot.

[Michael Burnside]

https://knottec.com/ these systems use a glue gun and an aluminum block to quickly cool the material. then flush trim it.

Smaller stuff you can use tinted CA if the colors will match I have used brown/black/white CA these colors may not be the best for maple

Last scenario would be the sanding dust from that wood and wood glue mixed up will fill the holes with the right color.run sander over the filled hole when it is still wet to get more dust in there. Make sure not to use extractor when doing this

I ordered a kit from Knottec but haven't used it yet. I normally use epoxy but sometimes that can be a pain on deeper voids that seem to suck up the expoxy and I have to keep an eye on it. Looking forward to seeing how this can complement my current methodology.

[George Yetka]

I found systemthree quick cure five at the local woodcraft. I may try that where there is rot.

To stabilize you would want something very thin. The thicker stuff like the quick cures wont penetrate. This is total boats version

https://www.totalboat.com/products/p..._source=google

[Dan Chouinard]

Knottec sounds very similar to the Rangate product Joe Calhoon demonstrated at the workshop in Colorado.

My co-conspirator here in the shop went ahead and dug the spongy areas out. I am thinking that was a mistake. Should it have stayed in place and used a water-thin epoxy to harden it?

[George Yetka]

Knottec sounds very similar to the Rangate product Joe Calhoon demonstrated at the workshop in Colorado.

My co-conspirator here in the shop went ahead and dug the spongy areas out. I am thinking that was a mistake. Should it have stayed in place and used a water-thin epoxy to harden it?

Spongy or "punky" wood is usually stabalized with epoxy. I know knife makers and pen makers do this if they work with spalted woods.

[Richard Daugird]

I bought some of those wood-colored glue sticks too, need to try them out. The superglue-baking soda-mica powder thing worked for me too, took a few tries to get the hang of it, I would practice on some cheap pine first no matter what method you use.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I have stabilized / filled punky or unstable parts of spalted maple with west systems epoxy and clear finished over top. Came out just fine and was hard to tell anything had been done.

[Dan Chouinard]

Oh now you tell me Phillip! Good to hear from you. Hope you are dusty and happy.
I really am bummed out that the punky wood was removed hastily. Oh well cant win em all.