Shellac and sawdust as a wood filler

Bill_Mackey | Posted in Finishing on June 9, 2000 04:45am

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I’m working on a blanket chest in curly maple. Predictably, I experienced some tearout during planing and I want to use a good filler. I’ve heard that a mixture of shellac and very fine sawdust will take stain better than Famowood or any of the commercially available alternatives. I mixed up a batch with the consistency of Famowood and found that it sanded off poorly, leaving ragged edges. What consistency should I shoot for to get better results??

Replies

William_Tuggle | May 24, 2000 04:42pm | #1
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Bill,

STOP in the name of love before you break my heart...

To get the best results do not accept tearout. The consistency you shoot for is smooth. Buy a scraper, learn to sharpen it, learn to use it and remove the tearout. Filling in situations such as this NEVER looks good. Wham! Up it a notch! Emirile (or everhow he spells his name.)

A hint. Use a SHARP plane. adjust for a THIN shaving and SKEW your cut. That will help on not having tearout. Use a scraper to remove those spots with tearout.

Jim_O'Donnell | Jun 09, 2000 04:45am | #2
*Lets say you DO experience some tearout, say, near an edge of one piece of wood to another. I have used shellac and wood dust - and it has worked beautifully! You can't tell where the crack is, even if you challenged someone to find it!Jim