I just recently mill out some Walnut and Apricot logs for furniture construction, but most of the wood was damaged by termites. What I want to do is fill them with sawdust and (glue?) and able to stain without having a difference in color. Any ideas?
suigeneris
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I've only had marginal luck with the sawdust & glue trick. On dark wood, I've found that the dark carpenters gave the best results - but definitely not invisible.
Sacrifice some of your lumber and make some samples to experiment on.
Sawdust and glue doesn't work any better than a commercial wood filler and can create finishing problems later because the glue will seal the wood around the holes preventing finishes and stains from penetrating evenly.
No matter what type of filler you use, the filled spots won't be an invisible fix because the filler won't have grain lines in it and will rarely match the color variations of different areas of the board.
For a perfect match, fill the holes with something that is close to, but slightly lighter in color than the surrounding wood, and then use artist's colors and a very fine brush to get an exact color match and graining. Do this after applying any stains and at least a first coat of the final finish to see what the final colors will be of the wood. After the touch ups have dried properly apply a final coat or two of the finish.
Finally, are you sure that the damage was done by termites and not some other bug? Termites generally do massive damage not leaving salvageable wood. If the holes are small and spread out through the wood, you are more likely dealing with the larvae of a beetle and they may still be alive and capable of doing further damage. This topic regularly gets discussed on Knots.
John W.
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