I picked up a cheap TL kit with a burl maple top. There are voids in the veneer where the spalting was taking place. What do I fill these voids with to flatten the top? Wood filler? Any preferred brands? I plan on doing an amber dye on there before a high gloss clear. The grain is stunning. Thanks for any info.
I've never tried filling this type of missing wood before, but others might have.
But can we clear up what you have, as you've mentioned both burl and spalt, which are very different things.
Burr wood comes from a burl on the side of a tree, which is a bulbous benign growth. It should normally be void-free.
Spalted maple comes from trees that have died and then started to go rotten, and the spalt is wood that has been affected by fungal growth. The trees are then cut and the wood dried to stop further decay. This is all very imprecise, so whilst some of the wood just has dark patterns in it, so of it has rotted a bit further so bits of the darer areas often fall out during the veneering process.
It sound like you've got more of a spalted top than a burr/burl one.
Photos would help here.
I'd think you should be able to use a suitable coloured wood or grain filler. As you've got a combination of light and dark wood colours, you shouldn't need to get an exact match. Depending on the type of stain and filler you are using, you may be better off staining before the filler is applied rather than after.
Whereabouts in the world are you, as that will affect what products are available (with a pretty international membership here, it helps others if you put at least your country in your profile)?
Just tried to edit my profile. Can't do it from the phone. I'm in Wisconsin, USA.
You edit it under 'settings', rather than 'my profile'. Don't ask me why!
I've used Aqua Coat grain filler before, which is a US product. It does take water based dyes well, so you can match your fill area well. but that is a very liquid product, so I'm not sure how well it would fill in larger areas.
But Aqua Coat do do a wood putty that can be stained which is going to be more like a standard wood filler. https://aquacoat.com/collections/wat...ral-wood-putty
I have never used it, but that's the sort of product I'd be looking for, something that will take water-based stains to get it to teh right colour.
The only thing I'd be wary of is that if you use a dark stain, it may affect lighter wood it comes into contact with. So I'd mask off surrounding light areas as best as possible and try and only apply the filler to the holes.
For any larger holes, you could always try and find a matching piece of dark veneer and cut a bit out, stick it in the hole and then just fill in the cracks around it. I buy marquetry mixed veneer packs from Amazon as an easy source of different types of wood veneer.
But do note that these are just my suggestions as I haven't attempted anything like this.
There we go with the pic. Got some stainable wood filler. Think it's going to get filled, leveled, and some yellow dye, and a clear. The yellow should pop the grain a little. We'll see. Lol.
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Headed in this direction......
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It would be worth giving it a wipe down with some white spirit / turps (or whatever you call it there ;-) to see how it might look with a neutral finish.
I've done a build with a "walnut" burl top, which looks similar. I was originally planning on a stain, but on good advice received here, decided not to, and ended up finishing with Tru Oil only. It came out quite a gold colour in the end.
There are some picture in this thread.
Last edited by jonwhitear; 29-11-2021 at 05:47 PM.
"Turpentine" in US.It would be worth giving it a wipe down with some white spirit / turps (or whatever you call it there ;-) to see how it might look with a neutral finish.
However, I prefer to wipe down with methylated spirits (denatured alcohol in the US) if I'm considering a water based dye.
I have no scientific reason for this. It's just based on my paranoia of finish incompatibility and how I have done it in the past.
Tru Oil has a slight amber colour due to having a proportion of Boiled Linseed Oil in it. The more coats, the more amber it will finish up, and will get slightly darker as it ages.I've done a build with a "walnut" burl top, which looks similar. I was originally planning on a stain, but on good advice received here, decided not to, and ended up finishing with Tru Oil only. It came out quite a gold colour in the end.
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One coat of tru-oil after some stainable wood filler in spots that needed it. The filler can be seen next to the neck pickup pocket. Kind of pastel yellow color.
I'd like it a bit more yellow, but it's just one coat, and very thin, so far......
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Perhaps too late, but I saw someone on Instagram using a very dark filler for their burl. Looked pretty natural, like dark knots.
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