Walnut knots, good?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Ok, next item on the honeydo list is a dresser, of my choice of design, for my youngest daughter. This will be walnut, and styled to match the todler sized sleigh bed I built a while back. Lonnie Birds secretary is part of the stylistic inspiration. Federal I suppose.

Question is, I have a bit of black walnut that I got for cheap, which must have been cut out of a pretty small tree. It has knots. It also has wonderful figure and great color, but it has knots. My wife loves them, but I can't seem to get into the look. If I use this lumber, some of the knots will need filled by something, black epoxy maybe?

Opinions? Should I get new lumber minus knots, or learn to love them because the wife does? Anybody have a photo of a piece of furniture made of walnut with knots? Thanks guys.

[Jamie Buxton]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost...67&postcount=3

is two pics of a big walnut dining table I made. It is 9' long. If you look closely at the top view (not just the thumbnail photo -- click on it to see the bigger pic) you can see some dark-brown epoxy. For instance, there are cracks in several of the knots. There's also a darker-brown stripe running up the table in the upper right-hand quadrant. That's not epoxy. It is coloring from a narrow check which is in the center of the stripe. I filled that check with epoxy.

I'm generally not real big on filling knots and checks with epoxy. I figure that the "defects" are part of the wood, and I don't want to inject plastic into the natural character of the wood. However, in the case of a practical dining table, you can't really tolerate cracks and checks. Food is going to get spilled on the table, and you have to be able to clean it up. For that reason, I filled these holes in this piece of furniture.

For a dresser, I'd be leaning toward not filling the defects. But it is entirely an esthetic choice, so I wouldn't argue with you if you choose to fill them.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Nice job Jamie! I do remember seeing your table before, but never noticed the knots. The filling I would do would be small, cracks 1/4", deep maybe an inch long. I'll probably just try it. I like th eidea of leaving them as is for character, and am leaning that way. Thanks for the help.

[Jim Becker]

I believe it's appropriate to do what the customer wants...if she likes the knots, so be it. And yes, black epoxy is a good filler for any larger voids or coffee grounds and thick CA for smaller ones.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Coffee grounds, Jim? Thats a new one to me! Gotta try it though! The customer won this debate. I reminded her that she didn't pay very well, she disagreed, gave examples, I ran for cover and she got her way, again... Oh well, bet I can get her attention when I ask for coffee grounds for the new dresser

[Jim Becker]

Many turners use coffee grounds to fill voids in workpieces, Steve. You can't beat the price, too...

[Chris Padilla]

I'm using walnut dust gathered from my drum sanding mixed with glue to fill in knots, checks, splits on the Tansu I'm working on; seems to work all right. I'm of the mind to mix the sawdust from the wood you're working on with glue because when you sand it down, you will expose some wood that can take a finish and it should help it blend better. Epoxy with wood dust works just fine, too.

What I want is a good recipe for blending walnut sapwood with its heartwood....

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Chris, are you using CA glue for your filler, or something else?

If you find that recipe, I could use it too...

[Jim Becker]

I would urge caution on using glue-based filler on anything you intend to oil (or color), Chris...the glue will never absorb the oil the same as the wood and those wood fibers you speak of will have glue "inside" of them. When you use epoxy or something like coffee grounds and CA to fill a knot hole, it's not as much an issue as these "features" are expected to appear a little different. But other voids may not disappear. Ideally, the best filler is solid wood slivers made from scrap of the same material you are building with and with the grain oriented identically to the piece they are repairing. Yup...it can be a bit of work, but most of the time, those fixes will totally disappear after finishing.