My first build: DTL-1

[McCreed]

I found myself considering whether I could satisfactorily make maple dowel with the grain running across the wood instead of lengthwise.

LOL! I went so far as buying plug cutters! I smoked through a couple of hardwoods with that experiment... FAIL

Then I bought a bag of 100 pine furniture plugs and went through the entire bag to find 4 that might be close grain-wise, but being pine, it took dye very differently... FAIL. (and that was with countless dilutions and washes trying to balance the colour!)

Ended up dowelling and painting. Can't see a thing now!

[gpjt]

Will definitely keep the pics coming.

Last night as I was dozing off I found myself considering using a sharp knife to try make scratches in the filler to continue the grain pattern. I think I may have a problem...

Anyway, the new wood fillers have arrived -- will see if they're a better colour match, and try not to obsess too much about this detail

[JimC]

Its when you carve an artificial grain and then fill it with grain filler that you're really losing it...
If you're going to try mixing fillers for a colour match, don't forget to do some experiments so you can make an estimate of how much it changes colour when it dries. And maybe even more important how much it changes colour with whatever finish you are going to put on top of it.

[gpjt]

Its when you carve an artificial grain and then fill it with grain filler that you're really losing it...

It's probably only a small step from where I am to that level of madness

If you're going to try mixing fillers for a colour match, don't forget to do some experiments so you can make an estimate of how much it changes colour when it dries. And maybe even more important how much it changes colour with whatever finish you are going to put on top of it.

Yup, definitely -- I'm using an offcut from the headstock and filling holes in that, then applying the finish on top.

[gpjt]

This evening's woodfiller auditions:



They both smell truly vile. My other half just came into the room where I'd used them and asked whether I'd just used the loo and if so, what on earth I'd eaten for lunch.

[Simon Barden]

At least you can now leave a container of woodfiller in the loo and blame that for the smell in future.

[gpjt]

At least you can now leave a container of woodfiller in the loo and blame that for the smell in future.

That's an excellent plan!

[gpjt]

So, after drying, both fillers are pretty much invisible, with the Osmo doing best:



(It's visible if you look very very closely.)

Early indications with the finish on are less good, though -- both are showing up but the Brummer less so. Will wait for the finish to dry before coming to a conclusion, though.

[McCreed]

Unfortunately, how the filler takes the finish (absorbs it) is always going to be the deciding factor in the end result. (as you've discovered)

Another alternative might be trying a "furniture repair crayon". (I think Simon mentioned this earlier)
The ones to use would be the "synthetic" wax type, NOT the bees wax type. They come in a range of colours for timber matching.

I haven't used them personally but I've read numerous threads about them. As I understand it, because they are synthetic, they will take a coating (lacquer, poly etc) but because they are "wax" it doesn't soak in to the filler and change it's colour.

I will reiterate that I have not used this method, only read about and seen videos about it. Could be worth a try.
Then again, this could be the beginning of that rabbit hole I mentioned a few post back

I don't know if TimberMate is available in the UK, but that's one brand that makes the synthetic crayons.

[Simon Barden]

You can get Timbermate, but it's normally very expensive. But you can certainly get touch-up crayons easily n the UK from Amazon (I've got some somewhere but never used them), though I'm not sure about whether mine are beeswax or synthetic.