Finishing Spalted/Burl type woods, ????

[Janster]

.....how does one fill the small divots inherent in some wwods. I do not have a problem getting a nice evenly smooth finish in others woods or even this wood, it's just the divots. They are too small to put a sluury into, maybe just dab and fill the holes w/medium ca? TIA.......Jan

 

[gbpens]

Depending on the wood you might try enlarging the hole so that stone or contrasting dust could be used with the CA . Sometimes filling voids adds character to the piece and sometimes it ruins the piece. Experiment.

 

[plantman]

If they are small, I use thick CA. Jim S

 

[Janster]

Depending on the wood you might try enlarging the hole so that stone or contrasting dust could be used with the CA . Sometimes filling voids adds character to the piece and sometimes it ruins the piece. Experiment.

...... divots are too small and the depth is too shallow to "safely enlarge" but a goos idea!! Thanks and be well................Jan

 

[Janster]

If they are small, I use thick CA. Jim S

.....thanks Jim, that was my thought but I wanted to be sure as to "knot" mess up the "knots". Thanks and be well.............Jan

 

[ctubbs]

Jan, are you talking about something like Red Oak grain? Something larger, smaller?

Charles

 

[Janster]

Jan, are you talking about something like Red Oak grain? Something larger, smaller?

Charles

I do not know exactly what the wood is. I just postesda pic on the the Show your pens forum. Thanks..........Jan

 

[mrcook4570]

Avoid those little divots all together by coating the blank with thin CA after you have turned it down to about 1/16" - 1/8" above the bushing. Use a fair amount of pressure to force the CA into the wood (as opposed to just laying on top). After the CA dries, make another pass with a sharp skew. Repeat (CA, skew, CA, skew, CA, skew, etc.). The CA will harden the wood and prevent it from tearing out.

 

[reiddog1]

On woods that like to tear out, I leave them a little proud of the bushings and do more sanding to get them to the right size. For deep grained wood like red oak, I will start with about 5 coats of thin CA and move to medium CA for an additional 10 to 12 coats. The thin CA seems to better fill those pores better than the medium IMHO. Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[ctubbs]

The photo posted shows a well spalted wood. It will have some punky wood along with harder wood form the fungus giving the spalting. On wood of this type, either stabilize the blank or use CA Skew, CA Skew layers until you get to the shape wanted. It will be subject to tare out. On open pore wood (Red Oak, etc.) I usually sand with GOOD 600 paper and medium CA when I have to fill the pores. The fine dust along with CA fills the holes leveling the surface. A bit more time consuming, I ply layers of CA then take off some with the skew as a scraper. When the blank gets an overall dull finish, I know all the low spots are level so I can then apply the final finish. Again, this advice is worth exactly what you just paid for it,zip, nada, nothin.

Charles

 

[Janster]

What I found..........

was that most of the divots I experienced were not visble prior to the last few passes. I did leave it somewhat proud and still had problems. I made a slurry and refilled and resanded ect. Thanks all for your input,a learning proccess evolves daily Be well..........Jan

 

[keithbyrd]

I find that I can fill 90 % of those divots, after sanding to size, with 3-4 coats of thin CA and 4-5 heavy coats of medium CA. Don't put too much pressure when wiping on the CA just enough to smooth it out - 3-4 wipes back and forth. When I say heavy coats of Med CA I mean a 1/2-3/4 dime size spot.

 

[mdm0829]

Sometimes I use a rotary tool to enlarge the hole and fill woth a contrasting fll material

 

[DonWood]

Well, let's see if I can explain this so it is understandable. After I turn the pen down to size to be ready to be sanded, I do the following:

1 - Turn off the dust collector since I want the sanding dust to stay on the blank. Sand with 220 grit. Turn off the lathe and sand the blank lengthwise to remove the circular sanding marks and to further fill any pores with sanding dust.

2 - Turn the lathe back on with a slow speed. Hold the 220 grit sandpaper lightly against the blank and put some thin CA on the blank and sand it. This will mix the sanding dust and the CA forming a slurry which will then be pushed into the pores when you sand it.

3 - After it is dry, I then start my normal sanding process starting with 220 grit, etc.

4 - I then finish with CA

You will find that the pores have been filled and that you will not even notice that anything has been filled since the filler (the sanding dust) is the color of the original wood.

This does a nice job of filling the small voids and pores of the wood. This will even do a good job on oak to eliminate the pores.

Hope this helps.

Don