Hi' I've got some 3" pine newel posts with a couple mortises in each one about 3" long and 4.5cm deep that i need to fill.I'm after a matching pine colour one that sands to a good finish for staining or varnishing afterwards.I've used everbuilds timbermate premium joiners grade one in pine finish before, but wasn't very impressed with results, any ideas? cheers.
the best wood filler is the one with a grain lol 2x1 par[assuming less than 22mm]select a section with close grain match planed/sanded/run through a table saw till the right size you can taper both sides by 1 degree back to front so it gets very tight at the front big all
Big All's correct. However what I've done in the past is to make a paste-filler up from sawdust and glue and build the filling up in layers. The mistake a lot of people make is in trying to fill too large a void and then watch the filler deform or fall out. Use sawdust and patience.
Big holes + Filler + Stain finish just don't work. It's fine if you can 'gloss over' the bodging, but you really need to let in a new piece of timber for this to look any good.
Find a thinner piece of off-cut pine(say for your situation 100mm(long) x 25mm(wide) x 10mm(thick). Mark round it on the post(to cover old mortise hole) with knife, chisel it out(to about 8mm). Glue and whack it in with other flat piece of wood. Allow to dry, and plane/sand to finish. Mr. HandyAndy - Really