Beautiful piece of old 12″ wide cherry – on it’s way to becoming a table top. There is a knot I would prefer to leave. The knot is tihgt, 1 1/2 X 7/8, but about half of it is gone – leaving a crevace about 3/8″ deep.
Plan to fill the gap with a paste of shellac and cherry dust. Then stain and finish. Will that work?
Replies
I saw David Marks of "Woodworks" inlay a bad knot with a good knot with re"mark"able results.
Food for thought.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Epoxy is an excellent filler. You could use cherry sawdust as a pigment by adding it in with the hardener and resin. Experement first!
Hope this helps,
Sean
As already stated, I use either remedy depending on the severity of the knot. If it's loose, black, rotted, and probably going to deteriorate more, then your best bet would be to inlay a good knot from another board.
For gap filling I use System 3 Structural Epoxy, (I believe the brand is T-88), with very fine ROS sawdust added for color. However, if it's a large repair, it will come out dark and shiny, so do a test board first to see if you like the achieved look.
Jeff
I don't know about the shellac and dust filler, so I can't answer that question. I use epoxy to fill large gaps, either Famowood or Everfix, and color it with artists' paint, either acrylic or oil. I don't use any filler like sawdust or silica. I usually color the stuff black.
Joe,
For that application I think anything short of a knot transplant will not suffice, especially on a table top.Avoid artificial fillers etc- they always show up, shrink , fall out ,crack or otherwise misbehave.
If you have a router with a smallish diameter straight cutter say 5or 6mm diameter, and preferably a disc sander you are set to go.
Very easy, no jigs, no patterns , no collars , zilch....The hardest part is finding a suitable donor knot.
Here are two examples in the footboard of a bed-one is not great but the normal person still would have no idea there was a bad knot there.Neither do my feet know.
I have always been a member of the epoxy camp. That is, until I saw your photographs. Very impressive, especially the second photo. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
The hardest part is finding a suitable donor knot.
Perhaps we could set up a donor knot registry to match folks with surplus knots with those with surplus knotholes.
Imagine the tragedy of people waiting for years on the knot waiting list, losing hope with every passing day that a matching donor for their 1.357" x 0.989" bubinga knothole will ever be found.
-Steve
Steve- hopefully that was said in jest, but just to be clear: the existing bad knot/hole/defect is routed to receive the new wood, which is in effect an irregularly shaped plug.So it's knot a case of being on the waiting list (;).Philip Marcou
philip,
I will gladly accept any recalcitrant (spell?) knots that you have an excess of. These bad knots could present a new twist for my Annual Knots Award (please see discussion of same). It could also.................
Well better knot go there!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 9/11/2007 8:22 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
philip
How clever and what excellant craftsmanship! I love this place for ideas like that. Normally the way I treat a knot on a board I want to save is to use a forstner bit and a hole saw but I see that you actaully cut yours to somewhat follow the grain. That is talent!
Frenchy, it is not an original idea by any means, and the modern router makes it very easy and quick to do. Here are two more.Philip Marcou
Edited 9/11/2007 8:59 pm by philip
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