Finishing with small cracks on edge of Manzanita Burl
xylocarpus
| Posted in Finishing on
I bought a nice small manzanita burl on a recent trip to Oregon and after flattening have some cracks on the edges. I used black epoxy to fill in the center but don’t want to use it to her which would highlight the cracks. My first thought is to just fill these small cracks with clear CA glue to minimize their presence after finishing but I am curious what others might consider a good approach.
Because the cracks have wood fibers in them I thought I might take a carving knife to clean out some of the fibers prior to filling but this may make it more obvious. BTW the cracks don’t really bother me as it’s natural but I would rather they not be too visible.
Comments always appreciated!
Replies
To me, those radially aligned cracks or gaps are a beautiful part of working with a natural material. I would totally fill them with black epoxy (or even red epoxy) in order to accent them !
I added a closeup of a small low table top in walnut with red epoxy and mahogany butterflies as an example.
You can dye epoxy. You can experiment with a color that either hides or accents. I use Transtint but there are others.
For the small cracks you could try wetsanding with liquid hide glue as the "lube". LHG pretty much vanishes under a finish.