I am a hobbyist woodworker who has built furniture and small boxes for many years but lately I have been fooling with veeners. Using regular veneer has not been a big problem but I just started trying my hand with burls. My problem is that some of the burl veneers I have are covered with small craters where, I assume, some of the wood chipped out due to the irregular grain of the wood when being sliced. After finishing (with shellac), the craters show up quite prominently. The question is how to deal with these chipped out areas. Can I use a filler, I have never used this stuff on anything so I do not know if it will work or do I have to sand the veneer to the level of the bottom of these pits? Sanding would make the veneer dangerously thin.
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Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
I think the traditional way is to fill the holes with beaumontage, which is like sealing wax, colored to match. The modern day equivalent would be shellac sticks or burn-in sticks. To me this is the best way.
You can fill the gaps with wood filler (not grain filler) and stain to match if your stain and filler are compatible. Otherwise, you can fill with filler and paint the color in using artist colors or pigments from Liberon, Touchup Depot, etc.
If you look closely at any burl in a furniture store, you'll see lots of repairs. They tend to disappear into the patern even if the color match isn't very good.
Michael R
Thanks a lot for the burl filling info!!! I've read several books on veneering and marquetry but not found the info you sent me. I'll definately give it a try.
Thanks again.
Jerry
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