How to Make Your Own Best Wood Filler
We’ve all been there – we’ve got this terrific wood project we’re working on, we bought all the wood and began piecing things together after getting our cuts right, and all of a sudden you look at this piece of wood for the 5th time. And your heart sinks because it has a gouge in it you didn’t notice before and because you’re planning on staining this project and not painting it, you’re going to have to figure something out to fix it.
Not only that, but this wood is not the typical piece of pine or oak – it’s got that special quality and no store-bought wood filler is going to work. So now it’s decision time – do we scrap the wood, or do we figure out how to make our own best wood filler?
Yes – that’s what we will do – make our own best wood filler! Not only will it fill in the gouge and make it look pretty, but you can pretty much match the wood color right down to the grain when it’s done right!
Materials needed:
1) Sawdust – from the exact type of wood you’re using. Try to get the sawdust from an area of the wood that’s a similar color to the area you need to fill. The closer the sawdust color is to the fill area the better off you’ll be.
2) Wood glue
Homemade Wood Filler Procedure
If you haven’t ever done this before, take some scrap sawdust first so you can see more on how to make your own best wood filler. Of course you won’t fill the hole with it, but you’ll get an idea of the consistency you’ll need to actually fill the hole. You CAN use a piece of scrap wood – go ahead, gouge away!! Begin by mixing some of the sawdust in with the glue – start with as much sawdust as you think you’ll need to fill the hole.
Be sure to reserve some of the sawdust for the final coat. Knead the sawdust and the glue together firmly so it makes a good ball of the mixture. Then fill the gouge with your scrap sawdust.
After you’ve filled the gouge with sawdust, be sure to push it down firmly so it will never, ever go anywhere. You don’t need to fill the gouge to the top – because stain and glue don’t go well together, there’s another step to the fill we will need to do so it looks it’s best. Let the mixture dry in the hole completely – this could take a few hours to a day.
After the original fill has completely dried, scrape off any extra that at or above the wood’s surface level. Then, spread a VERY thin layer of wood glue completely over the gouge area. It is really important this is as thin as possible while remaining wet to the touch. Now before the glue dries, spread another layer of sawdust on top of the glue. Be sure you don’t allow any of the glue to seep up to the top layer.
Spread the sawdust evenly across the gouge on top of the glue. Don’t worry if it goes too high in places, as long as the glue layer is BELOW the surface you should be fine. You actually want a layer of the sawdust a little higher than the surface because you want to sand to a smooth finish.
Let this layer dry completely – it should only take a couple of hours. Finally, rough lightly and then fine sand down to the surface. To mimic the grain, you can take a very fine line of darker wood filler or wood pen (again – test color AND technique on scrap first!), let it dry completely, and then stain away!
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