What to do about voids in burl wood?

[mmayo]

I just turned a rollerball using mallee (sic) burl wood and discovered, as always, that there were numerous tiny cracks and voids. Since I'd like this pen to be smooth I used Starbond medium CA in brown. I also have Starbond black for other woods. I exclusively use EZ Bond CA for finishing, but I diverge for gap filling. I like the colored stuff better than clear in most cases where it just looks better.

I turn the pen bodies, sand them and clean well with DNA. If needed I use the compressor to blow out the dust. When dry I apply the brown CA to all the cracks I can find. I found one and filled it after the photograph attached to this post. I spray accelerator and let cure quite a while. I carefully turn again, sand, clean and hope one round of filling gets the job done. It works for me!

Best of luck with your voids.

 

[InkyMike]

Interesting - I use Starbond but I had not seen the colored versions. Good to know.

 

[monophoto]

You can find perfect wood, and you can find interesting wood, but its awfully hard to find interesting wood that is also perfect. Which is another way of saying that wood that has interesting figure will likely also contain imperfections, and one of the things that I've learned that I need to improve on is my ability to correct imperfections in interesting wood.

CA works, but its not my favorite approach. Instead, I prefer epoxy because it cures to be hard yet still flexible, so it's easier to machine it to the final item. By itsellf, it's bland, but epoxy can be easily modified by adding dyes, sawdust, coffee grounds, etc. Yes, it's possible to use additives with CA - pack them into the imperfection, and then add the CA - but the problem I've had with that is that sometimes the CA cures on the surface leaving a cavity containing dry infill that falls out when I machine it. So my preference is to add the infill to epoxy, blending it thoroughly with the resin component before adding in the hardener. If the void is large, it may be necessary to fill it in stages, and also sometimes use a heat gun to force any air bubbles in the epoxy to come to the surface before it cures.

 

[MedWoodWorx]

Cursing. Ca works great when cursing. No accelerator needed.

 

[mmayo]

I'll stick to acceleration with Stickfast spray. I probably curse too much, but not in the shop usually. For me, CA is always right.

Here is the finished pen with very few voids visible. I like to leave very slight evidence of grain as it has proven to be a selling point. Before I filled it, the voids would be detrimental to a sale.

 

[wimkluck]

I sand the blank wet with Thin CA glue. I start sanding with 120. Yes you need some pieces of sandpaper. For bigger cracks I use epoxy.

 

[jcm71]

Don't hide the imperfections. Highlight them. I fill cracks and voids with a ground stone of a contrasting color, such as blue agate or ground turquoise. Customers eyes are drawn to them.