Hi — Hi have a bunch of wood like the picture shows, of nicely figured maple with worm or beetle channels that seem to be filled with the castings or sawdust. I was planning on using it for drawer fronts, and I’ve resawn it into veneers, as in the pictures. What is the best way to treat this? Do I seal — and if I do, it’s likely to compress into a gulley. Or do I blow it out and fill the channel with something like epoxy and then finish (hard to see how that would work with veneer)?
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Experimenting may be your best option. And please, let me know what you learn. For some reason I've always stayed away from epoxy as a filler, but I'm curious to hear what others have to say about its use in this situation.
I have spalted alder with similar worm holes. I clean the cavities and either use putty or apply finish over the empty cavities. My method works well enough for door panels, but unfilled worm holes at the corners of drawer fronts could be a problem. Sorry I don't have silver bullet solution for you, but I did want to express my interest.
There are at least two ways of dealing with 'imperfections.' You can try to hide them (this could take so much experimentation I might run out of wood) or to 'highlight' it, but I'm not sure what this would mean or how. If I could proverbially burn wood as esch5995 suggests, I'd go the experimentation route, but I'm hoping someone has relevant experience with this that I can learn from. If not, I'll experiment a bit and meet the forks in the road.
I know this is not what you want to hear, but I can't envision what you think that would look like when you fill those tracks, but I can't think of any method that would be attractive. Some wood is meant to be firewood.
The maple will be tougher to plan around, especially if it is veneers.
I had some old pine that was the same but I built a rustic table utilizing the worm holes as part of the design elements. It turned out great but the grain was easier to manage. The key for you will be the design of the piece you plan to use it for.
As for the holes, I blew them out with an air compressor and generously applied multiples layers of finish. They are not even but were not designed to be either.