Stainable wood filler

[ian45662]

Here in a week or so
I will be finishing an 1855 type 2 Whitney militia rifle which is a civil war musket with a heavy 33 inch barrel. There are a few places where I have taken out a little to much wood. What kind of wood filler do you guys use to cover up these little mistakes?

 

[ron ward]

not really any type of filler will adhere well enough to any wood to actually stay on when filling inletting voids. best to get some brownells acra-glass gel and mix in some of the dye that comes with it, then either glass bed the part or use the acra-glass as adhesive to glue in thin strips of scrap stock wood and scrape till the part sits back in. mix tiny batches to test for cured color against the fully finished tone of your stock. if careful, you can mix well enough that you can't see a difference. some times just a touch darker blends well and looks like a natural dark streak in the grain, if the blank has lots of color variation. for maple, some real fine sanding dust will color the acra-glass pretty good....you have to experiment.

 

[RHill]

Acraglas is expensive, but worth it. Don't use wood filler, really looks like hack work and it will not stay in place with shooting. Wood fillers do not take stain well and will stick out like a sore thumb. Acraglas can be bought in original formula or thick gel type, for most repairs I like the thicker stuff, doesn't run all over the place. The original is good for cracks.

 

[jerrywh]

There is no such thing as stainable wood filler or stainable glue. People will argue this but they can't produce one. The best thing ou can do is to stain the area first and then glue in a piece of wood with matching grain. Stain the piece you use to fill with first also.

 

[armymedic.2]

titebond II mixed into a paste with sawdust.............does not work :surrender:

i tried oh well. don't do it. luckily my booboo was behind the cock.

 

[ian45662]

I had some acraglas but I used it all on other projects. I went ahead and got some more. I didnt get any of the die though. I was going to use a reddish brown as a stain so I figured I would just through a little of that into the compound.

 

[ohio ramrod]

The origional hot melt hide glue will make a solid and stainable, but not waterproof filler. It is available from woodworkers supply in dry flakes that you mix with water and heat. Back in the fifties when I was in school shop we made all of our wood filler that way. In the seventies when I started building furniture I tried the "modern " wood glues and quickly found out they will not stain! :idunno:

 

[Vaino]

I've taken a matched grain piece of wood, stained the contact side of it and the side of the inlet and when dry, sparingly applied gel super glue to both surfaces...the super glue disolves the stain and takes on it's color. Hold in place for a minute or so. I always use a very much oversize piece of wood, especially the top...easier to handle and the excess wood is easy to remove. The glue joint is nearly invisible.....Fred

 

[Rifleman1776]

The best wood filler on the market, IMHO, is called Timber Mate. It is an Australian product. Great product but the company marketing methods are pitiful. Hard to find. Do search the woodworking catalogs, someone may have it.