Run that by me again if you please

William Schrade

William Schrade

Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Messages
632
Hey y'all,

I remember reading about filling gaps in stabilized wood. I was shaping some California Buck Eye Burl and one of those Buckeyes cocked an eye at me. It's about 1/16 wide and the same deep.

Thanks
 
Honestly in my experience superglue is the way to go. Build up a layer, wait for it to fully cure then using fine grit, lightly sand it. Repeat until you are a little above the surface, then just sand it down and polish the handle like normal.
 
Super glue works well, but if the gap is very large you might try mixing sawdust, ground up instant coffee, etc. with the superglue to fill the gap. I put some of that filler material in the gap, add some superglue, add more filler, more superglue, till the gap is filled.
 
I've used fine ground coffee soaked with ca glue in larger voids. It looks good if there is other dark figure in your scale. Otherwise fine sawdust and ca glue would also work just fine.
 
I had to do that on a piece of stabilized redwood burl on a fair sized soft spot which is was told by the guy helping me out can be a problem with redwood even when stabilized properly. If there is a super glue that people use for finishing because it shines, I would try to find some of that.
 
I always push aside a pile of sawing/grinding dust of each block of stabilized woods I use for just such treatment as needed as completion nears with a bottle of thin, medium and think CA ready to make a stuff, fill & finish overcoat of sandings and CA.
 
jdm61 said:
I had to do that on a piece of stabilized redwood burl on a fair sized soft spot which is was told by the guy helping me out can be a problem with redwood even when stabilized properly. If there is a super glue that people use for finishing because it shines, I would try to find some of that.
Click to expand...

I've tried 3 different kinds of superglue so far.

From where I'm standing they all work well for finishing. Just a matter of getting a high polish on em.
 
LX_Emergency said:
I've tried 3 different kinds of superglue so far.

From where I'm standing they all work well for finishing. Just a matter of getting a high polish on em.
Click to expand...

Kind of an obvious thing to say, but thinner, runnier CA would works better than thicker CA, though as long as you can get it all the way in the void, it's sufficient.
 
Buckeye burl almost always has some open lines or "eyes".

Here is how I do buckeye burl:
Sand to about 85-90% final shape and put on a 220/320 grit belt.
Look for any lines or holes.
Flood the line/hole with thin CA and wait about 60 seconds.
Sand some more. Stop after a few seconds of sanding and check the spot again. It should have filled with the wood dust as you sanded and bonded with the CA.
It may be hard to find the spot. Repeat as needed for a larger spot and work the handle to nearly the final shape.
Switch to a new 400 grit belt and flood the entire handle with thin CA.
Wait until it is set and sand it all away to bare wood.
Carefully inspect the handle and touch up any remaining spots.
You can repeat the flood treatment a few times if desired.
Once done the handle should be bare wood and smooth as a baby's butt. No cracks, lines, or holes should be visible.... and you should not be able to see where they were.
Sand to 1000 and buff lightly with matchless white or pink polish.

You can invisibly fill really big voids like this. If you mix resin and saw dust and try to pack the void, it almost always shows.
 
A little off topic but baking soda and super glue works well on bone and other light coloured materials. Dries super hard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top